By Simon Zekaria - 16th January 2004
The European Commission on Friday has opened infringment proceedings against six countries for not putting EU laws on artistic lending rights into force.
Spain, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Portugal and Ireland have all been sent a 'letter of formal notice' by the EU executive for not updating their national leislation on public and commercial lending rights.
Under EU copyright laws, authors have explicit rights to approve or prohibit public lending of their works and member states are obliged to offer payment for the licence if they derogate from these exclusive opportunities.
The commission warned EU states in September 2002 that EU laws of lending were not being applied correctly across the union.
The letter is the first step in a legal procedure that could end up with heavy fines in the EU courts.
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