Vice-President Ansip: Making Europe’s copyright rules fit for the digital age

This afternoon, Vice-President Andrus Ansip, in charge of the Digital Single Market, will discuss the modernisation of EU copyright rules at Strasbourg University’s Centre for International Intellectual Property Rights. As part of its Digital Single Market Strategy, in December the Commission will take the first steps to make EU’s outdated copyright framework fit for the digital age. The Commission intends to present its reform plans in a strategy paper, along with a first concrete proposal to give cross-border portability of online content to Europeans. Vice-President Ansip said: “We do not want to destroy current copyright policies or overhaul them completely. This is about making concrete, targeted and balanced improvements in areas where the EU can make a real difference.” He will add: “European culture, whatever it is – films, drama, sport, books – has to be made digitally available on a large scale. This should be an evolution, not a revolution. It should be about rules that give people better access to the cultural content that they want, while rewarding those who create it, and those who invest in its production.” The full speech will be available in the afternoon here.