Sir, – In connection with the editorial "Australia vs Facebook" (September 2nd), I am curious to know why no mention was made of the actions already taken by the EU in this area under the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market of 2019.
Article 15 of the directive provides for “Protection of Press Publications Concerning Online Uses”. Section 54 of the directive explains: “Publishers of press publications are facing problems in licensing the online use of their publications . . . making it more difficult for them to recoup their investments.”
As a result, Article 15 grants new rights to press publishers which are designed to secure the payment of copyright royalties by information society providers to press publishers.
The directive is required to be implemented into Irish law by June 7th, 2021.
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It also contains other major changes, such as Article 17, dealing with the liability regime for the use of copyright-protected materials on user-generated content services such as those operated by Google and Facebook. This will hopefully narrow the “value gap” and see Irish creative talent including music composers, performers and screen content creators better remunerated for their works, with an improved share of the very large Irish-focused advertising revenues on those services.
These are significant changes to Irish copyright law, as well as in the wider media landscape, and I look forward to the media’s greater coverage of them in the upcoming months. – Yours, etc,
JAMES HICKEY,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.