Europe needs to allow wider online access to works and open new opportunities for the content industry especially for creators. The European Commission believes that the copyright regime in Europe needs to be harmonised more. They’ll be making legislative proposals by the end of the year, which will include the following:
*legally acquired content
*cross-border access to online services
*greater legal certainty for the cross-border use of content for specific purposes such as research
With the Digital Single Market, Europe aims to open up digital opportunities to people and businesses between the 28 EU member states. In connection to this, the European Commission has published details of its plans to harmonise and modernise the copyright laws. The Digital Single Market’s aims are:
*to boost the music download business
*to establish a single area for online payments
*to protect European consumers in cyberspace
The Digital Single Market Strategy can improve users’ access to information, culture and other content. They do this by addressing issues like geoblocking and changing copyright laws. These existing barriers make Europeans miss out on interesting content coming from all over the world.
The strategy was adopted on May 6, 2015 and is one of the 10 political priorities of President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker. He said, “I want to see every consumer getting the best deals and every business accessing the widest market – wherever they are in Europe,”
Content providers which are not available in every European Union countries include:
*Netflix
*YouTube
*Amazon Instant Video
*BBC iPlayer
The European Commission works hard to endorse this Digital Single Market Strategy by inviting the European Parliament and Council. The Commission sees a bright future to fully consume content in all parts of Europe. They believe that this strategy can transform the society.