Making the Digital Single Market Work for Copyright. Extending the Satellite & Cable Directive to content services on line

Despite 25 years of copyright harmonization the law of copyright in the EU has remained, essentially, national and territorial. For the world of tangible (physical) goods a similar problem of market fragmentation was solved decades ago by the ECJ establishing a rule of ‘Community exhaustion’ of the right of distribution. Ever since, goods incorporating intellectual property, such as records, books and trademarked clothing, may circulate freely across the EU after their initial authorized marketing in a Member State. Why not introduce a similar rule for the world of non-physical distribution? We do have an interesting precedent. Satellite broadcasting market suffered from similar copyright problems as the on line content services market today. In 1993 the Sat-Cab Directive solved such problems stating that satellite broadcasting is a relevant act for copyright purposes only in the country of origin of the signal. As a consequence, a license to broadcast audiovisual content by satellite would be needed only in the Member State from where the satellite signal was uplinked. This article examines the legal ramifications of the extension of the country of origin principle to the on line environment.