Legal Definitions - Directive Harmonizing the Term of Copyright and Certain Related Rights

The Directive Harmonizing the Term of Copyright and Certain Related Rights is a policy created by the European Commission in 1993. Its purpose is to set a standard length of time for copyright protection across most member countries. This standard length is the life of the author plus 70 years.

For example, if an author dies in 2021, their work will be protected by copyright until 2091 (70 years after their death).

The Directive was created to ensure that copyright protection is consistent across Europe. Before the Directive, different countries had different lengths of time for copyright protection. The Directive extended coverage in most member countries to match that of Germany, whose term was the longest on the Continent.

The Directive is also known as the Duration Directive.