LIFEBLOOD OF THE PRESS: DIGITAL COPYRIGHTS
LIFEBLOOD OF THE PRESS: DIGITAL COPYRIGHTS
In its simplest form, copyright refers to the entirety of the rights on the work resulting from an intellectual effort, while those in the digital environment are called digital copyright. Considering that all kinds of broadcasting have shifted to digital channels in recent years, the defense of copyright in the digital world has become much more important.
Legal arrangements should be made in order to prevent copyright violations in the digital environment. Although there are legal regulations on digital copyrights in the international sense, it can be easily stated that the most up-to-date and most comprehensive regulation was made in the EU wing with the Directive on Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market No. 2019/790.
It can be said that the aim of the EU Directive is the desire to establish a Digital Single Market with EU member states. In other words, it was emphasized that national copyright laws should be made as compatible as possible in EU member states and that legal regulations on copyright should be arranged in accordance with technological developments.
The fact that Google has agreements with more than 300 press publishers in Europe shows that the Directive is implemented by Google. With this agreement, Google aims to offer an expanded news preview agreement.
Because previewing the news on platforms such as Google, linking to news content, etc. In such cases, the rights of the authors come to the fore. With this step, Google will be able to become fully compliant with the Directive in a short time. In this context, Turkey’s step is also very important.
In this context, it is expected that Google will pay the most to German publishers. This situation shows that both Turkey and other countries should take German law as an example.
It is extremely important to provide the right holders with the return they deserve in exchange for the intellectual products they produce. At this point, platforms such as Google and Facebook (“Meta”) should primarily be responsible for whether or not platform users violate the rights of the authors, especially within the scope of Article 17, in line with the Directive, that is, there should be a filtering. In this way, both the owners of the works will be protected and an environment that will encourage the owners of the works to share content will be provided.
It should also be noted that when both Article 15 of the Directive and the German Copyright Law are taken into account, the concept of “press publisher” is included in these regulations. In the regulations, it is obligatory to give some of the money that press publishers from service providers such as Google will receive in return for their use of the works of the authors. It is important to consider a similar regulation in new law studies in Turkey.
In addition, legal regulations and exceptions that protect physical environments often do not cover digital media and at least revision is needed. In the light of all these explanations, it is important for Turkey to reconsider its legal regulations, at least in line with the EU Directive, to harmonize the FSEK and then to focus on new legal regulations regarding the protection of copyright in the digital environment.
prof. Dr. Levent Eraslan
SODIMER President