On 29 October 2020, the Intellectual Property Council and the Consultative Committee for audiovisual each adopted their own opinion on the transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/789 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 laying down rules on the exercise of copyright and related rights applicable to certain online transmissions of broadcasting organisations and retransmissions of television and radio programmes, and amending Council Directive 93/83/EEC.
The opinions of the two consultative bodies are reproduced in a single joint document.
The document is designed in accordance with the structure of the Code of Economic Law. The modifications to be made to the relevant provisions of the CEL as a result of the transposition of the Directive have been discussed both within the Council and within the Consultative Committee for audiovisual. However, the members of the Consultative Committee for audiovisual have also been invited to the meetings of the Intellectual Property Council on each occasion.
The preliminary draft law proposal and the draft explanatory memorandum (as communicated to the members of the Consultavie Committee for audiovisual on 12 June 2020 and to the members of the Council on 14 August 2020), as well as the contributions of the members of the Council and the members of the Consultative Committee for audiovisual are joined in the attachments to the opinion.
In concrete terms, this directive provides for :
- the application of the country of origin principle for the exercise of copyright and related rights which are relevant for ancillary online services for radio programmes and certain television programmes. For example, it is specifically provided that where a news programme is offered for download online, the country of origin principle applies;
- a mandatory collective management system for the right to authorise retransmission via new technical means, such as retransmission via digital terrestrial, closed-circuit IP-based or mobile networks;
- a legal regime for the transmission of programmes by the technical process of direct injection.
This directive must be transposed into Belgian law by 7 June 2021 at the latest.
