EC countries urged to adopt public lending right

MEP Zuzana Roithova has put forward a proposal to the European Parliament urging them to take measures with European Countries who do not implement public lending right systems in their national legislation.

Roithova said that public lending right was an important step for more ‘harmonised copyright’ in Europe and provided “a crucial financial compensation measure for authors for the lending of their works.”

Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Poland, Portugal and Romania have all been named as Member States who failed implemented public lending right; this has been marked as a violation of EU legislation.

Zuzana Roithova, of the Czech Republic, has asked what steps the Commission intends to take in connection with the violations and when they intend to bring infringement procedures against the Member States. She has also asked what the reasons are for failure to implement the agreed public lending right policies in those Member States.

Procedures are expected to take some months to push through the European Court of Justice, but supporters are optimistic of the outcome for public lending right.

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