Authors’ Rights and the Media

Abstract

We examine recent steps taken toward the legal reform of intellectual property law and the law on authors’ rights, above all within the European Union, and study how the new digital market is leading towards a more company-centered concept of intellectual property based on the collective work. We also examine how the emergence of user-generated content is introducing changes to this legal structure. Specifically, we focus on potential reforms in the wake of the publication of a Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market by the European Commission in September 2016. Here, we analyze two key characteristics: first, the possible attribution of authors’ rights to media companies through the so-called press publishers’ right, and the influence of this right on the European media system—we compare this to the legal strategies associated with intellectual property and copyright in other legal traditions, above all in Common Law countries; and, second, the possible enactment of intellectual property rights related to user-generated content.