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This article was first published on the Open Future blog on October 10, 2024. Two weeks ago, the Landgericht Hamburg decided the case LAION vs Kneschke. The latter – a photographer – had sued LAION for including one of his pictures in the LAION-5B training data set, claiming that this amounted to copyright infringement. The […]
On October 2nd, COMMUNIA was invited to contribute to an event by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Future of Work programme in Brussels entitled “Rebooting the debate: Generative AI and creative work.” COMMUNIA President and Open Future Policy Director Paul Keller provided a keynote speech on the current legal framework on copyright and AI, noting that Articles 3 […]
On October 2, COMMUNIA hosted an in-person event in Brussels on why Europe needs a Digital Knowledge Act. A video recording of the event is now available (hosted on Vimeo). The event brought together academics, representatives of civil society and EU policymakers to discuss legislative measures that would enable knowledge institutions, such as libraries, archives, […]
Europe is investing heavily in research and innovation, and for good reason. But we have failed to support these interests by clearing the way for the digital transition of libraries, archives, universities and other knowledge institutions that are essential to promoting progress. We need to prioritise reform that focuses on the needs of these institutions. […]
Five of the biggest publishers in the world, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House, are currently suing the Internet Archive in the US for lending digital scans of books in its collection on a one-copy-one-user basis. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has now confirmed the ruling of […]
The European AI Office’s public consultation Future-Proof AI Act: Trustworthy General-Purpose AI wraps up tomorrow. This multi-stakeholder consultation is aimed at informing the drafting process of the first Code of Practice, which will detail the AI Act rules for providers of general-purpose AI models and general-purpose AI models with systemic risks. Earlier this month COMMUNIA […]
As reported in earlier posts on this blog and on the Kluwer Copyright Blog, in a 2022 study, I examined the national implementations in the 11 Member States that had at that time transposed Article 15 (the press publishers’ right) and Article 17 (the special copyright liability regime for “online content-sharing services providers” (OCSSPs)) of the EU’s Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive (CDSMD). […]
Since the beginning of the year, we have fleshed out proposals for measures that should be included in a Digital Knowledge Act — a targeted legislative intervention that enables libraries, archives, universities and other knowledge institutions to offer the same services online as offline. In a series of six policy papers, we identified the constraints […]
The end of the copyright protection for Walt Disney’s 1928 short film “Steamboat Willie” – known as the first-ever appearance of Mickey Mouse – was met with great interest by the international media and among artists. Yet, a little-noticed international treaty has the unexpected effect of extending the protection for the film under the copyright […]
The end is in sight! After delays at (almost) every stage of the legislative process, the EU AI Act will soon be published in the EU’s official journal and eventually enter into force in August. This marks the end of more than 3 years of negotiations since the text was originally proposed by the European […]
