Within the European Union, not all countries originally had such a right, and where it was provided terms varied, but in 1993 national laws were required to be harmonized by EU Directive 93/98/EEC to provide standard period of protection of 25 years from first publication.
However, Article 10 of that directive states that : where a term of protection, which is longer than the corresponding term provided for by this Directive, is already running in a Member State on the date referred to in Article 13 (1), this Directive shall not have the effect of shortening that term of protection in that Member State.
[6] The owner of a copy of a posthumous work, as distinguished from the owner of the original of the work, is vested with no such right, where the copy was transmitted without intent of transmitting such right.
[7] The requirement of the European Directive 93/98/EEC to introduce a publication right into national law was implemented in the UK on 1 December 1996 by the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 1996,[8] a Statutory instrument which modified the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
[9] Under the 1996 rules - which were slightly amended again by the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003[10] - the right was granted to anyone who makes available to the public for the first time a previously-unpublished out-of-copyright work with the permission of the owner of the corresponding physical medium.