Lack of political will hinders copyright reform, MEP says

The European Commission is being too cautious in its proposed reforms to the legislation on copyright and in tackling those measures which prevent access to digital content in another EU member state, according to the German MEP Julia Reda.

Reda, vice-president of the Greens/EFA Group and a member of the German Pirate Party, is pressing for a reform of the EU copyright laws to make them universal across all member states through the introduction of a Single European Copyright law. She is also pushing for the end of the unjustified geo-blocking, when trying to access digital content from another member state.

The Commission announced in February that these issues would be addressed by a regulatory package intended to create a single market for digital content within the next two years. However, in an interview with the news website Euractiv, Reda criticised the Commission for not being ambitious enough, especially regarding to the copyright exceptions.