Fundamental rights should function as an external limit to copyright laws when those laws do not properly protect the rights enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Europe needs to clarify that if existing exceptions to copyright and other exclusive rights lack flexibility to cover activities protected by fundamental rights, it should be possible for national courts to apply fundamental rights directly, further limiting exclusive rights, so as to reach an equitable solution that fully respects the Charter.
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. […]
In this publication, we lay out our ideas for 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. Our booklet is structured along four actions to empower knowledge institutions in the digital age: Protect the Public Domain! Unlock […]
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 […]
Background Users are losing the ability to own copies of copyrighted materials. Today, many materials are only published in digital rather than analogue formats to the point that it has become much more difficult, if not impossible, to obtain movies, music or scientific publications in analogue formats. At the same time, publishers no longer sell […]
Today, COMMUNIA is releasing Policy Paper #21 on the right to license and own digital materials (also available as a PDF file), in which we highlight a crucial challenge that users face in the digital environment: the increasing inability to own digital copies of copyrighted material. Legacy physical formats, such as books, CDs and DVDs, […]
EU copyright law provides rights holders with powerful tools, in the form of exclusive rights and enforcement mechanisms, that allow them to control the dissemination of essential knowledge goods. In the digital ecosystem, rights holders can exercise these formally legitimate rights to segment access and restrict who can buy and license their digital works. This […]
This independent expert study, commissioned by COMMUNIA and Knowledge Rights 21 to Christophe Geiger Bernd Justin Jütte, explores what positive obligations must be imposed on rightholders as a consequence of the rights users enjoy under copyright law, in particular in the light of the fundamental rights they are reflecting. A particular focus of the study […]
COMMUNIA and Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte are pleased to announce the detailed programme of the Filtered Futures conference on September 19th in Berlin.
COMMUNIA and Wikimedia Deutschland held a panel discussion on February 15th to discuss whether the new mandatory exceptions in the EU Copyright Directive could serve as a model to solve some of the most pressing international-level problems around education and research. The event started with Marco Giorello, the Head of the Copyright Unit at […]
