Codification of European Copyright Law

Intellectual property scholars often argue that a European Copyright Code is unnecessary, undesirable, and perhaps impossible. It is certainly true that drafting rules for the European copyright law of the future is a sensitive and risky task. However, the intersection between the present and the future, the delicate point where it is felt that one era is fading away and a new dawn is breaking, has arrived for European copyright law; and moreover, the Lisbon Treaty has provided an explicit legal basis for an EU copyright policy. At this moment, all views, interests, concerns, and expectations should be weighed in order to establish the next step forward from this critical stage.