In short. The EU press publishers' right covers online reproduction and making available of press publications by service providers, subject to exclusions and copyright exceptions.

Definition: Article 15 of the Digital Single Market (DSM) Directive establishes the EU press publishers' right: a right related to copyright that protects publishers established in an EU Member State against certain online uses of their press publications by online service providers. It covers reproduction and making available to the public, subject to exclusions and exceptions.

Key facts

The DSM Directive, Article 15, excludes hyperlinking, individual words and very short extracts from the publishers' right.
The InfoSoc Directive, Articles 2 and 3(2), defines the underlying rights to authorise or prohibit copying and on-demand public access.
Directive (EU) 2015/1535, Article 1(1)(b), defines an information society service as normally provided for remuneration, at a distance, electronically and at a recipient's individual request.

Which publications and online uses are protected?

As of 17 October 2026, the DSM Directive's framework requires Member States to provide the right through national law. Article 29 sets the transposition deadline at 7 June 2021.

Article 2(4) defines a press publication as a mainly journalistic collection within a periodical or regularly updated publication under a single title. It informs the general public about news or other topics and operates under a service provider's initiative, editorial responsibility and control. Scientific and academic periodicals are excluded. Recital 56 includes news websites and recognises that publications can contain photographs and videos.

Article 15 concerns online uses by information society service providers. Recital 54 identifies news aggregators and media monitoring services as examples of businesses that reuse press publications. Recital 58 covers entire publications, articles and parts of publications.

Which uses fall outside the right?

The operative provision is identified as follows:

Directive (EU) 2019/790
Article 15
Protection of press publications concerning online uses

Article 15(1) excludes private or non-commercial uses by individual users, acts of hyperlinking, and the use of individual words or very short extracts. Recital 57 also excludes the mere facts reported in a publication.

Article 15 sets no numerical length limit for a very short extract. Recital 58 says that this exclusion must preserve the effectiveness of the right, taking account of large-scale aggregation and use.

Article 15(2) preserves authors' and other rightholders' rights in the underlying material. It also protects other authorised users where material appears under a non-exclusive licence and prevents publishers from invoking this right over works whose protection has expired.

Which exceptions can permit reuse?

Article 15(3) applies the InfoSoc Directive's exceptions framework to the publishers' right. Article 5(3)(d) permits Member States to provide a quotation exception for purposes such as criticism or review. Its conditions include prior lawful public availability, fair practice, use limited to the specific purpose, and identification of the source and author unless impossible.

Article 5(3)(c) also permits an exception for reporting current events, within the extent justified by the informatory purpose and with source attribution unless impossible. These provisions operate through the applicable national exceptions. Article 5(5) requires special cases that preserve normal exploitation and avoid unreasonable prejudice to rightholders' legitimate interests.

Text and data mining means automated analysis of digital text and data to generate information. The DSM Directive, Articles 3 and 4, expressly includes the publishers' right within its mining exceptions. Article 3 covers scientific research by research organisations and cultural heritage institutions with lawful access. Article 4 covers reproductions and extractions of lawfully accessible material, subject to an appropriate express reservation of rights, including machine-readable means for publicly available online content.

How long does protection last?

Article 15(4) provides a two-year term, calculated from 1 January following publication. Publications first published before 6 June 2019 are excluded. Article 15(5) requires authors to receive an appropriate share of publishers' revenues from the covered uses by service providers.

FAQ

Can I link to a news article?

Article 15(1) expressly excludes acts of hyperlinking from this right. Copying accompanying article text requires a separate assessment of the exclusions and exceptions.

Can I reuse an extract simply by naming its source?

Attribution is one condition of the quotation exception in Article 5(3)(d). The quotation must also meet the purpose, fair-practice and lawful-availability conditions under the applicable national law.

Can I freely copy an article after the publishers' right expires?

Article 15(2) preserves the separate rights in the article and other incorporated material. Expiry of the publishers' right leaves those rights intact.

Sources

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