On 7 June 2019, the new Directive on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market came into force and must be implemented in all EU member states by 7 June 2021.
Additional rights for publishers of press publications
The Directive, commonly referred to as the EU Copyright Directive, creates special additional rights for publishers of press publications – they will be entitled to remuneration for reuse of their published content by information society service providers, such as news portals and news aggregators (e.g. Google News, Yahoo! News).
More obligations for content-sharing service providers
Content-sharing service providers – platforms such as YouTube or SoundCloud – will have more stringent obligations to monitor and prevent sharing of infringing content. They will be required to make their best efforts to obtain authorisation for sharing and to ensure unavailability or take-down of specific works notified by right holders. This will not apply to new service providers earning less than EUR 10 million annual turnover for up to three years.
Directive implementation to require stakeholder dialogues
The goals of the Directive seem noble but its provisions often require assessment of many factors and the Directive specifically says that its implementation will still require stakeholder dialogues. So the most interesting features of how the Directive will be implemented in the Baltic States still remain to be seen in the future.
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