This week Royal Decree 24/2021 has been published, transposing Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the digital single market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC. Among other provisions, it introduced in the Spanish law the exclusive right of publishers of press publications to communicate to the public online their press publications, understood as including text, images or any other work protected by copyright. The provision we are referring to adds Article 129 bis to the IP Act, and entered into force yesterday, 4 November.

This means that, publishers are free to negotiate individually with each information society service provider the dissemination of such information in exchange of a price. Alternatively, the law allows publishers to opt for the collective management of this right, on a voluntary basis. The aim is to ensure that publishers of press publications obtain compensation from search engines and internet content aggregators for the use of their publications. The Royal Decree 24/2021, states, however, that this right of publishers of press publications does not apply to the use of single words or very short or insignificant extracts of the information. After the entry into force of this provision, it will be interesting to know how press publishers in Spain proceed to negotiate with internet giants.

Florencia Arrébola
IP/Media Area