| Author (Corporate) | European Parliament: European Parliamentary Research Service |
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| Series Title | Briefing: EU Legislation in Progress |
| Series Details | April 2017 |
| Publication Date | April 2017 |
| Content Type | Journal | Series | Blog, Policy-making |
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‘EU Legislation in Progress’ briefings aim to provide Members of the European Parliament with systematic and automatic analysis on all substantial proposals for EU legislation at every stage of the legislative procedure. Each contains an account of the purpose, content and legal aspects of the legislation proposed, in particular analysing what the legislation would change, as well as any previous legislation and the background. An overview of stakeholders’ views is also provided, as well as the opinions of national parliaments and the two advisory committees. They are all made publicly available for stakeholders and the public.The provision of copyright-protected online content services is still largely characterised by territorial and exclusive licensing practices which result in a lack of cross-border portability in the EU. To remedy this, the European Commission proposed a regulation on the cross-border portability of online content services. According to the proposed regulation the provision of online content services would be deemed to take place only in the country in which the subscriber is a permanent resident. This would require online content service providers to offer cross-border portability to their customers when they are temporarily present in other Member States, and would make unenforceable all contrary contractual restrictions in the licences between rights-holders and service providers. Stakeholders and commentators generally welcomed the proposed regulation but some concerns have been raised with regard to elements of the current wording which leaves too much room for interpretation. In February 2017, negotiators from the European Parliament (EP), the Council and Commission reached a compromise on the proposal for a regulation on cross-border portability of online content services. The EP must now formally approve the new rules, enabling consumers to access their online subscriptions for content services when they travel across the EU and are temporarily outside their Member State of residence. The compromise text amends the Commission’s proposal in various ways. It clarifies that providers of free-of-charge online content services can also offer portability services to their subscribers. The notion of temporary presence in other Member States has been tightened and refers to a limited period of time. The concept of Member State of residence and its verification mechanism are also more explicitly defined. At the EP’s request, some safeguards have been added to ensure data protection and privacy are respected (especially for IP address checks), and a waiver clause has been introduced which allows content providers to avoid verifying the residence of their customers when all the holders of copyright, related rights, or other rights in the content agree. The European Parliament was due to vote in plenary session in May 2017 on the latest compromise text. Author: Tambiama Madiega (1st edition). |
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| Source Link | http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2016/577970/EPRS_BRI(2016)577970_EN.pdf |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry, Internal Markets |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
