European copyright and human rights in the digital sphere

The interaction between copyright and human rights is not a new phenomenon, but it is one that for a long time was ignored and undervalued. The initial emergence of European Union copyright law focused on the adoption of the copyright directives and the implications of copyright for the single market. The protection of copyright as a human right has also found confirmation at the highest level in European human rights law. The human rights internalisation will of course not be fully complete until reflected in the statutory provisions on copyright. In Europe in particular, the text of the Charter and the findings of the European Court of Human Rights have set the tone for the debate on copyright as a human right. The focus has shifted instead to the second big question raised by the intersection of copyright and human rights: the impact of copyright on other human rights.