Economic impacts of adapting certain limitations and exceptions to copyright and related rights

Assessing the economic impacts of adapting certain limitations and exceptions to copyright and related rights in the EU. Analysis of specific policy options, part 2. Mei 2014.

"This report is the second part of a wider study, commissioned by DG Internal Market and Services, that aims at assessing targeted changes in European copyright law, with a focus on exceptions and limitations to copyright, as a response to technological advances.

The first part of the study is the report by Charles River Associates “Assessing the  economic impacts of adapting certain limitations and exceptions to copyright and related  rights in the EU” (Langus et al., 2013, henceforth “CRA Methodology Report”), which  establishes a methodology to assess exceptions and limitations to copyright. While the  report identifies the channels through which copyright exceptions affect total welfare1, it  argues that on the basis of theory alone, one cannot make a case that technological  advances (resulting for example in a decrease in the cost of copying and extended  consumer uses) call for broader or narrower exceptions. Indeed, there are opposing  effects at play and only a detailed assessment of the trade-offs involved taking into  consideration the specificities of the exceptions considered can lead to such a conclusion.

In turn, the present report uses the aforementioned methodology to assess the economic  impacts of specific policy options in several topics of interest, in view of providing policy  guidance on these topics. This report focuses on the following topics:

- Digital preservation by cultural heritage and educational institutions;   

- The provision of remote access by cultural heritage and educational institutions to  their collections for the benefit of their patrons;

- E-lending by publicly accessible libraries;  

- Text and data mining for the purpose of scientific research;  

- Reproductions made by natural persons for private uses.

Lees het onderzoek hier. Deel 1 van het onderzoek vindt u hier.