Today, COMMUNIA is releasing Policy Paper #18 on limitation of liability for knowledge institutions (also available as a PDF file), in which we propose to lay down at Union level that knowledge institutions shall be sheltered from liability so long as they act in a responsible and prudent way, having reasonable grounds to believe that they have acted […]
Due to the lack of a clear legal framework for e-lending at both the EU and member state level, libraries are struggling to fulfil their public service mission in the digital environment. We are hosting the first COMMUNIA Salon of this year, online on Wednesday, May 29, 15:00-16:00 CEST, on the occasion of the publication […]
Recent Italian courts cases concerning the reproduction of works held by Italian cultural heritage institutions ignore Article 14 of the CDSM Directive. Instead of following the intent of the directive to ensure that faithful reproductions of public domain works remain in the public domain, the Italian lawmaker extends new exclusive rights over public domain works […]
For more than seven decades, international law has consistently led countries to embrace culture as a global and cross-border value for humanity. The human right to cultural participation has become a pillar of protecting and empowering individuals and communities. At the EU level, the competence to legislate on cultural matters is mostly left to the […]
Earlier today, the European Parliament voted in favour of the Directive on common rules promoting the repair of goods. With this Directive, the EU aims to increase the level of consumer and environmental protection by encouraging consumers to repair defective products instead of replacing them. To that end, the proposal takes a number of important […]
In our capacity as accredited observers of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), we are attending the 45th session of the Committee, which is currently taking place in Geneva (April 15-19, 2024). We made the following statement regarding limitations and exceptions for educational and research institutions and for persons with other […]
In our capacity as accredited observers of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), we are attending the 45th session of the Committee, which is currently taking place in Geneva (April 15-19, 2024). We made the following statement regarding the protection of Broadcasting Organizations (Agenda Item 4): Dear Delegates, The proposed broadcast […]
Published research outputs often end up locked behind paywalls, unavailable to many researchers and the broader public, impeding scientific – and human – progress. Despite progress in the area of open science, research funded by the European public is no exception to this. In many cases, European taxpayers are essentially asked to pay up twice, […]
On the 6th of March 2024, we were delighted to welcome a full house at our “Unlocking Knowledge Conference” at Town Hall Europe. At this event, we asked academics, civil society representatives and EU policymakers about the issues knowledge institutions and researchers still face when accessing and using copyrighted materials in their activities, particularly in […]
The purpose of copyright, at its very basic level, finds its normative implementation in the interplay between access to protected works and the protection of the moral and material interest of creators (see Geiger, 2017). The social contract of copyright, which main purpose is to realize a broader collective concern, the access of citizens to […]
