Author's Right, Copyright and Free Licenses for Culture on the Web/Problems and Solutions/Exceptions

123. Are there exceptions to copyright for Cultural Institutions in the Directive 2019/790 EU?
Yes. Directive 2019/790 EU provides a series of mandatory exceptions, overturning the previous rulings which had been adopted through Directive 2001/29/CEE which identified a series of exceptions which were general and not mandatory.


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124. Are the exceptions applied to digital copies of works protected by law?
Yes. Directive 2019/790/EU provides a number of mandatory exceptions, overturning the previous system introduced by Directive 2001/29/EC which identified a number of general exceptions that Member States may provide for (except for the temporary acts of reproduction, which are transient or incidental and an integral and essential part of a technological process and whose sole purpose is to enable a) a transmission in a network between third parties by an intermediary, or b) a lawful use of a work or other subject-matter to be made, and which have no independent economic significance. In fact in these cases, those acts that have to be exempted from the reproduction right provided for in Article 2).


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125. What are the exceptions provided by the Directive 2019/790 EU?
Directive 2019/790/EU provides a number of exceptions:
 * 1) for reproductions and extractions of lawfully accessible works and other subject matter for the purposes of text and data mining (art. 4);
 * 2) in order to allow the digital use of works and other subject matter for the sole purpose of illustration for teaching, to the extent justified by the non-commercial purpose to be achieved (art. 5);
 * 3) in order to allow cultural heritage institutions to make copies of any works or other subject matter that are permanently in their collections, in any format or medium, for purposes of preservation of such works or other subject matter and to the extent necessary for such preservation (art.6);
 * 4) in order to allow collective management organisation, in accordance with its mandates from rights holders, may conclude a non-exclusive licence for non-commercial purposes with a cultural heritage institution for the reproduction, distribution, communication to the public or making available to the public of out-of-commerce works or other subject matter that are permanently in the collection of the institution, irrespective of whether all rights holders covered by the licence have mandated the collective management organisation (art. 8).


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126. What is meant by freedom of panorama?
The freedom of panorama is an exception to copyright that allows anyone to make photographic reproductions of everything that is visible from the public street. In some Countries, freedom of panorama allows reproductions of only goods in the public domain, while in other cases it allows the reproduction of all goods visible from the public street regardless of whether or not they are under copyright protection. In this sense, Article 5, section 3, letter h, of Directive 2001/29/EC provides the possibility of Member States having exceptions or limitations when using works, such as works of architecture or sculpture, created to be placed permanently in public places, but does not require such a rule.


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127. Which countries allow freedom of panorama?
The implementation of the freedom of panorama varies a lot as, according to the different legal systems, the incidence and limits change. There are, in fact, countries where the freedom of panorama is allowed only for non-commercial purposes (for example, Romania), countries where it concerns only buildings and not works of art (for example, Finland) and countries where it is provided in a strong and complete form (for example, Germany).


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