France adjusts private copy exception according to EC requirements

Author: Future of Copyright - 09-12-2011

Kluwercopyrightblog.com reports that France will adjust its Law on Intellectual Property (Le Code de la Propriété Intelectuelle). On June 17 2011, the French Council of State (Conseil d'Etat) decided the French Law on Intellectual Property does not meet the requirements set out by the European Court of Justice on the private copying levy in the Spanish Padawan case.

In the Padawan case, the ECJ answered questions about the scope of the private copy levy. According to the Court, levies on data carriers can only be applied when private copy use is presumable. Upon delivery of blank data storage media to professional parties, the assumption of private use could be missing. The exclusion of the levy on the supply of blank data media in the context of professional use was however not possible in the current French law. Therefore, as a result of the Padawan case, the French law has to be amended.

The amendment includes the following changes to regulations in the field of private copying:

  • When calculating the height of the private copy levy, they should take the storage device into account, as well as the possibilities to make private copies for private use.
  • Delivery to professionals is excluded from the private copy levy. However, this regulation is not retroactive.
  • Someone can only invoke the private copy exception if the copy is made from a legitimate source.

To avoid that the decision of the State Council would lead to massive repayments to professionals as a result of past payments, the effects of this destruction are suspended until December 22, 2011. Until that date the French government has time to amend the changes.

Read more about the Padawan and Private Copy case on FutureofCopyright.com:

References: Kluwercopyrightblog.com, IEPT.nl

Door: Deniece Teterissa

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