The European Union Internet Copyright Directive as Even More Than it Envisions: Toward a Supra-EU Harmonization of Copyright Policy and Theory

Abstract

Evolving global markets in electronic commerce highlight the importance of developing a copyright regime capable of flowing with the changing landscape of international intellectual property law. Traditional boundaries based on time and distance erode as business, education, and the world at large become more digitized. In order to respond to the increasingly widespread digital age, copyright law must become less nationalistic and more global in scale. Both the United States and the European Union have acknowledged the dynamics of intellectual property in today's digital revolution. The United States has responded with, among others, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, and the European Union has similarly answered with its Directives on Copyright and E-Commerce. Historically, the United States, in contrast with the European Union, has shown reluctance to recognize moral rights as an important aspect of copyright law. Going forward, it is in the interest of both trading entities to work together to create a more harmonized market that will be better suited to international business in the 21st century.