Yesterday, COMMUNIA made a submission to the call for evidence for an impact assessment on the European Research Area (ERA) Act. The European Commission is expected to propose an ERA Act over the course of the 2024-2029 mandate, to turn the “fifth freedom” for research, innovation, knowledge and education into reality and unlock European research.
COMMUNIA strongly supports the completion of the ERA, where researchers, knowledge, and technology can circulate freely. To achieve this goal, it is essential to address the remaining legal barriers that fragment the ERA and restrict the free flow of scientific knowledge. Our contribution focuses on copyright-related obstacles that undermine European research, innovation, and competitiveness, in particular:
- access to and reuse of publicly funded research results and
- access to and reuse of research resources.
Specifically, the ERA Act should introduce an EU-wide secondary publishing right that protects authors and ensures open access to their work, regardless of contractual obligations towards publishers. Unlike existing fragmented national laws, this right should apply uniformly across the EU, cover the version of record, and be free from embargo periods. We also recommend against implementing public funding thresholds.
The ERA Act should also introduce a mandatory, flexible, and technologically neutral research exception that applies horizontally to all types of protected works and is fit-for-purpose for both institutional and non-institutional researchers. This exception should cover both reproduction and communication to the public (including making available online). Importantly, it must be protected against contractual override and it must be ensured that the exception cannot be undermined by technological protection measures. Furthermore, it should be covered by public international law protections, to prevent choice-of-law agreements from overriding it.
Our full submission (PDF file) as well as related policy papers and documents are available for download on our website:
- Policy paper #17 on access to publicly funded research (PDF),
- Policy paper #23 for a general scientific research exception (PDF),
- our proposal for a Digital Knowledge Act (PDF),
- our brochure “Nobody puts research in a cage: Researchers’ perspectives on working with copyright” (PDF), and
- our report “Unfair licensing practices: The library experience” (PDF).
