Directive on Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market

Article 1 Subject matter and scope

The Directive harmonizes EU law on copyright and related rights for the internal market, addressing digital and cross-border uses, exceptions, licensing facilitation, and marketplace functioning. Except as specified in Article 24, the Directive does not change existing copyright directives currently in force.

Article 2 Definitions

Research organisations are universities, research institutes or similar entities conducting scientific research on a not-for-profit basis or for a recognized public interest mission, where undertakings exercising decisive influence cannot preferentially benefit from research results. Text and data mining means automated analysis techniques for generating information from text and data, including patterns and correlations. Cultural heritage institutions are publicly accessible libraries, museums, archives, or film and audio heritage institutions.

Article 3 Text and data mining for the purposes of scientific research

Member States must provide exceptions to reproduction and extraction rights for research organisations and cultural heritage institutions performing text and data mining on lawfully accessible works for scientific research. Copies must be stored securely and may be retained for research and verification purposes. Rightholders may apply security and integrity measures necessary to protect hosting networks and databases.

Article 4 Exception or limitation for text and data mining

Member States must exempt reproductions and extractions of lawfully accessible works for text and data mining purposes from copyright protections. This exemption applies unless rightholders have expressly reserved their rights through suitable technical or explicit means, particularly through computational formats for publicly available online materials.

Article 5 Use of works and other subject matter in digital and cross-border teaching activities

Member States must permit educational establishments to use works digitally for teaching illustration purposes when the use is proportionate to the non-commercial educational goal. Use must occur under institutional responsibility, in secure environments limited to students and staff, and must credit authors where feasible; Member States may exclude specific works like educational textbooks if licensed alternatives are readily available.

Article 6 Preservation of cultural heritage

Member States must allow cultural heritage institutions to reproduce works and other protected materials held in their permanent collections in any format for preservation purposes, to the extent copying is needed for that preservation.

Article 7 Common provisions

Contracts that contradict the exceptions for text and data mining, teaching, and cultural preservation are void and unenforceable. Related procedural rules from previous copyright directives apply to these exceptions.

Article 8 Use of out-of-commerce works and other subject matter by cultural heritage institutions

Member States must enable sufficiently representative collective management organisations to grant non-exclusive, non-commercial licences to cultural heritage institutions for making available permanently held out-of-commerce works, or must provide an exception allowing such institutions to make out-of-commerce works available on non-commercial websites where no representative organisation exists; all rightholders may opt out at any time. Licences must be sought from a collective management organisation representative in the Member State where the institution is established. The article does not apply to out-of-commerce sets predominantly comprising works first published or broadcast in third countries, or third country cinematographic or audiovisual works, unless the collective management organisation is sufficiently representative of the relevant third country rightholders.

Article 9 Cross-border uses

Licenses granted for out-of-commerce works may permit their use by cultural heritage institutions across the European Union. Such uses are treated as occurring solely in the Member State where the institution is based for jurisdictional purposes.

Article 10 Publicity measures

Member States must ensure that identification details about out-of-commerce works, licensing information, and rightholder options are published continuously and accessibly through a centralized online portal run by the EU Intellectual Property Office, starting at least six months before distribution or public communication of the works. Additional publicity measures must be taken in relevant territories to reach rightholders effectively.

Article 11 Stakeholder dialogue

Member States must consult rightholders, collective management organizations, and cultural heritage institutions within each sector before setting specific licensing requirements, and must foster ongoing dialogue among users, rightholders, and stakeholders to maintain the effectiveness and relevance of licensing frameworks.

Article 12 Collective licensing with an extended effect

Member States may allow collective management organizations to extend licenses to represent unmandate rightholders only for narrow use categories where obtaining individual permissions is impractical, with safeguards requiring the organization's representative status, equal treatment, individual opt-out rights, and advance notice. This mechanism does not affect other extended effect licensing under Union law or mandatory collective management, with Directive 2014/26/EU Article 7 applying, and Member States must notify the Commission which must report by 10 April 2021 on use, impact, effectiveness and potential cross-border application.

Article 13 Negotiation mechanism

Member States must ensure parties seeking to conclude video-on-demand licensing agreements can access an impartial body or mediators to facilitate negotiations and propose solutions. Member States must notify the Commission of the designated body or mediators no later than 7 June 2021.

Article 14 Works of visual art in the public domain

Once copyright protection for a visual artwork expires, reproductions of it are not subject to copyright unless the reproduction itself is original work by an author. This applies to all Member States.

Article 15 Protection of press publications concerning online uses

Member States must grant press publishers the reproduction and communication rights under existing directives for online use of their publications by information society service providers, with a two-year term from publication. Exceptions exist for private uses, hyperlinking, individual words or very short extracts, non-exclusive licenses, and expired protections. Authors and performers retain independent exploitation rights and fair compensation when their works are included in publications.

Article 16 Claims to fair compensation

Member States may allow publishers who have received transferred or licensed rights from authors to receive a share of compensation earned under exceptions or limitations to copyright, without affecting existing public lending right arrangements.

Article 17 Use of protected content by online content-sharing service providers

Online content-sharing services must obtain authorization from rightholders for communication to the public of copyright-protected works unless they demonstrate best efforts to obtain authorization, use professional diligence to prevent availability of notified works when rightholders provide information, and act expeditiously to disable content upon notice; new services operating less than three years with annual turnover below 10 million euros need only make best efforts and act expeditiously, or also prevent future uploads if monthly visitors exceed 5 million. Services must not prevent availability of non-infringing content or works covered by exceptions for quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody or pastiche; must establish effective complaint mechanisms with human review and out-of-court redress; must inform users of copyright exceptions; and cannot identify users or process personal data except under data protection directives. Services have no general monitoring obligations, rightholders must justify removal requests, and the Commission shall issue guidance on balancing fundamental rights with copyright protection.

Article 18 Principle of appropriate and proportionate remuneration

Authors and performers must receive appropriate and proportionate remuneration when licensing or transferring exclusive exploitation rights. Member States may implement this principle through various mechanisms while respecting contractual freedom and balancing the rights and interests of all parties.

Article 19 Transparency obligation

Member States must ensure authors and performers receive annual detailed information on their works and performances, including exploitation modes and revenues. Where rights are further licensed, authors and performers may request information on sub-licensees from their direct contractual counterpart. Member States may limit this requirement where disproportionate to revenues or where the author or performer's contribution is not significant, unless they claim it is necessary for exercising their contract adjustment rights.

Article 20 Contract adjustment mechanism

Authors and performers, or their representatives, have the right to claim additional fair remuneration from their original contractual counterpart when the initially agreed remuneration becomes disproportionately low compared to subsequent revenues, unless a collective bargaining agreement provides a comparable mechanism. This does not apply to collective management entities covered by Directive 2014/26/EU.

Article 21 Alternative dispute resolution procedure

Article 22 Right of revocation

Authors and performers who exclusively licensed or transferred their rights may revoke the license or transfer if the work is not exploited, provided proper notice is given and a reasonable time has passed. Member States may set conditions, time limits, and exceptions based on sector specificities and may allow authors and performers to terminate exclusivity instead of revoking rights. Member States may prohibit contractual waivers of revocation unless based on collective bargaining.

Article 23 Common provisions

Contractual clauses preventing compliance with transparency, contract adjustment, and dispute resolution obligations are unenforceable against authors and performers. These protections do not apply to computer program authors under Directive 2009/24/EC.

Article 24 Amendments to Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC

Article 6(2)(b) of Directive 96/9/EC is amended to clarify that illustration for teaching or scientific research is permitted if the source is indicated, and Article 9(b) is amended similarly for extraction. Directive 2001/29/EC Articles 5(2)(c) and 5(3)(a) are amended to allow certain library, museum and educational copying and teaching illustration uses subject to source indication and non-commercial purposes. Article 12(4) of Directive 2001/29/EC gains three new review and information-sharing points concerning this Directive's transposition.

Article 25 Relationship with exceptions and limitations provided for in other directives

Article 26 Application in time

The Directive applies to works and other protected subject matter protected under national copyright law on or after 7 June 2021, without affecting acts concluded or rights acquired before that date.

Article 27 Transitional provision

The transparency obligation for agreements licensing or transferring authors' and performers' rights takes effect from 7 June 2022, one year after the Directive's general application date.

Article 28 Protection of personal data

Any handling of personal information conducted under this Directive must comply with the electronic privacy Directive 2002/58/EC and the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

Article 29 Transposition

Member States must enact the necessary laws, regulations and administrative measures to implement this Directive and notify the Commission by 7 June 2021, with those provisions including or accompanied by a reference to this Directive as determined by each Member State. Member States must also transmit to the Commission the text of primary national law they enact relating to the matters covered in this Directive.

Article 30 Review

The Commission must evaluate this Directive from 7 June 2026 and report findings to the Parliament, Council and Economic and Social Committee. By 7 June 2024, the Commission must assess whether the liability rules for online content-sharing platforms with turnover below EUR 10 million and less than three years in the EU market require adjustment.

Article 31 Entry into force

This Directive takes effect on the twentieth day after its publication in the Official Journal.

Article 32 Addressees