"Gut gemeint ist das Gegenteil von gut": a timely review of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive

​​Abstract¹⁾¹⁾Nick Yule is head of legal at AEPO-ARTIS, a non-profit making organisation based in Brussels representing collective management organisations of performers’ neighbouring rights vis-à-vis the European Union. The 42 members are active in 30 different countries and represent more than 650.000 performers active in the music and audiovisual sector.

This article, based on a presentation delivered at the Initiative Urheberrecht Österreich conference in Vienna on 20 November 2025 argues that well-intentioned laws frequently fail to deliver the desired results in practice and that one such law is the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive 2019/790, currently under review by the European Commission. The directive’s Chapter three provisions on fair remuneration have largely – and in the case of actors and non-featured musicians, completely – failed to deliver any benefit for performers.