CJEU Case Law and the Interplay with Policy and Legislative Action in the DSM

Abstract

The final chapter tackles recent initiatives for a reform of the EU copyright acquis. In particular, it focuses on a number of selected areas in the proposed Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM), which require to be considered in light, not just of existing legislation, but also—and perhaps most importantly—existing case law. These areas are: the ‘value gap’ (‘transfer of value’) proposal, the press publishers’ right, fair compensation for private copying, and licensing of out-of-commerce works. The chapter discusses whether and to what extent the EU copyright reform may be regarded as a ‘codification’ of existing CJEU case law, or rather as a departure from it. Either way, the centrality of judicial interpretation of existing legislation is apparent also in the context of policy discourse.