Evaluation of the directive 2001/29/EC in the digital information society

This paper presents an evaluation of Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the digital information society. Although the public domain is nowhere explicitly mentioned in the Directive, the overall framework that it creates undeniably affects the way digital copyright protected works are being used.
The objectives of the Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society were twofold: (1) to adapt legislation on copyright and related rights to reflect technological developments, and (2) to transpose into Community law the main international obligations arising from the two treaties on copyright and related rights adopted within the framework of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in December 1996. As one of the centrepieces of the Lisbon Agenda, which aims at making the European Union “the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world” by 2010, the Information Society Directive is seen a crucial element in any strategy leading towards fostering the growth of the knowledge-based economy in the European Union. Does the Directive achieve the goals set by the legislator? How does it generally impact the use of copyright protected works and thereby, the evolution of the public domain?
At the same time, the copyright framework must be able to take account of the needs for digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation by libraries, archives, and museums. The European Commission published a Recommendation on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation in 2006 . The objective of the Recommendation is to develop digitised material from libraries, archives and museums, as well as to give citizens throughout Europe access to its cultural heritage, by making it searchable and usable on the Internet. The achievement of these goals inevitably raise copyright issues. As noted in Recital 10 of the Recommendation, only part of the material held by libraries, archives and museums is in the public domain, while the rest is protected by intellectual property rights. To what extent does the Information Society Directive allow libraries, archives and museums to comply with the objectives of the Recommendation?

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