The principal goal was to ensure that there was a single duration for copyright and
related rights across the entire
European Union. The chosen term for a work was 70 years from the death of the author (
post mortem auctoris, pma) for
authors' rights regardless of when the work was first lawfully published (Art. 1), longer than the 50-year
post mortem auctoris term required by the
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Art. 7.1 Berne Convention). In the case that the author is anonymous or pseudonymous the term for a work is 70 years from the date of first lawful publication. The directive notes that the original goal of the Berne Convention was to protect works for two generations after the death of the author, and that fifty years was no longer sufficient for this purpose (para. 5 of the preamble). It is often stated that 70 years pma was the longest copyright term of any Member State at the time: this is not strictly correct, and is not quoted as the reason for the choice in the directive. Where a Member State protected a work for a longer period at the time the directive came into force, the copyright term is not reduced [Art. 10(1)], but other Member States will not respect the longer period. The duration of protection of
related rights (those of performers,
phonogram and film producers and broadcasting organisations) was set at fifty years with the following rules for calculating the starting date (Art. 3). This fifty-year period was in reflexion of the negotiating position of the European Community at the negotiations which led to the
Marrakech Agreements, including the
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
Copyright restoration The new copyright terms applied also to works which were already in existence when it came into force, as was held by the
European Court of Justice in the
Butterfly case, even if they had previously entered the
public domain. Strictly, they applied to works which were protected in at least one Member State on 1 July 1995, although most Member States chose to apply them to all works which would qualify on the basis of the protection terms, regardless of protection elsewhere: this approach is much simpler for national courts to apply, as they do not have to consider foreign laws. The effect of the approach was shown by the judgment of the European Court of Justice in the
Puccini case, which covered facts arising before the directive entered force. The State of
Hesse in Germany had staged the opera
La Bohème by
Puccini during the 1993/94 season at the
Hessische Staatstheater Wiesbaden without the permission of the copyright holder. The opera was first published in Italy and Puccini died on 29 November 1924. At the time, Italy applied a copyright period of 56 years pma, so Italian protection had expired at the end of 1980: Germany, however, applied a 70 years pma period to works of German authors and the "rule of the shorter term" (Art. 7.8 Berne Convention) to foreign works. The Court ruled that the application of the rule of the shorter term between Member States was a breach of the principle of non-discrimination enshrined in Article 12 of the
Treaty instituting the European Community: hence the work should have been protected in Germany even if it was no longer protected in Italy. Such cases should no longer arise with the implementation of the directive. As of 2015, all works affected by the copyright restoration have re-entered the public domain. == Films and photographs ==