European Commission Vice President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip said he will introduce the first legislation in its Digital Single Market strategy before the end of this year.
In a blog post Ansip wrote “The […] proposal will be the first concrete step to sort out Europe’s outdated rules on copyright and will relate to cross-border portability of online content.
“Put simply, this means allowing people who have signed up to online content services in one EU country – for books, music, games, films, drama, sport – to use those services when they are temporarily present in another one.
“If they have paid for access rights, say to a film, in their home country, they should be able to watch it if they travel across an internal EU border.
“Today, often they cannot do this. With more internet availability, and more ownership of portable devices like tablets and smartphones, online content services have become many people’s main gateway to culture and entertainment.
“That is not all on copyright. More will follow in 2016. We intend to set out our plans for reforming copyright in a strategy paper that will also be presented by the end of this year.”
