COPYRIGHT : BARNIER WANTS 'STRUCTURED DIALOGUE'.

Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier had already seemed to want to get a firm grip on copyright issues again. On 6 December 2012, at an Intellectual Property Forum organised by the European Parliament, Barnier again called for a balance between the protection of copyright online and exceptions that facilitate access to works in the EU.

It is an exercise that, according to him, should go via a new "structured dialogue" by the end of 2013 with the stakeholders in the sector, under the aegis of the EuropeaCommission.

He is expecting to find solutions, "on the basis of existing law," to the following six sets of issues: 1. cross-border access to online platforms; 2. access to online audiovisual works; 3. digitisation and availability of European films; 4. the issue of legal uncertainty characterising content reusing other online content; 5. the question of searching or exploring texts and data (the possibility of exploiting a small part of a piece of work); and 6. above all, the fees deducted for private...