Today, we are publishing our 2024 annual report that covers COMMUNIA’s activities between January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024. This corresponds to the second reporting period for our structural grant from Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. Over the last year, we benefited from the consolidated organisational structure and an established strategy, which we had developed over the first reporting period, allowing us to substantiate our policy positions and develop our presence in the European policy space.
The report provides an account of how we defined our strategic priorities against the backdrop of the 2024 European elections and the new mandate. It also gives an overview of our activities during the reporting period, including our year-long campaign for a Digital Knowledge Act. Key accomplishments from last year include:
- We drafted and published six policy papers elaborating our positions on a range of issues in relation to the Digital Knowledge Act.
- We released two independent academic studies that informed our advocacy, one on how cultural heritage laws limit the use of Public Domain works and another one proposing an obligation to license digital materials under fair conditions.
- We developed and released a publication targeted at policymakers that presents our demands for a Digital Knowledge Act in an accessible way. The publication is available in print and digital formats.
- We hosted two well-attended in-person events in Brussels that brought together academics, representatives of civil society and EU policymakers to raise awareness for our demands.
- We contributed to the discussions around AI and copyright, participating in multiple external events and joining the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice Plenary hosted by the European AI Office to detail the provisions of the AI Act.
- We expanded our communication toolkit, launching a monthly newsletter. We invite you to sign up in case you haven’t done so already (Disclaimer: Clicking on this link will direct you to Mailchimp and may lead to data being collected by and shared with third parties. Proceed only if you agree).
We thank Arcadia and all of our members and collaborators for their invaluable contributions. Since the priorities of the new Commission are only now taking shape, there remains a lot of uncertainty about what 2025 will bring in terms of copyright policy. Nonetheless, we believe we are well positioned to – again – make a strong impact this year.