Works and data produced by the public sector (such as official texts of a legislative, administrative, or legal nature) are part of an essential commons of information which is too important for the functioning of our societies to be burdened with copyright restrictions even for a limited period. To ensure a consistent and harmonised scope of the Public Domain, Europe needs to ensure that these materials are free from exclusive rights in all Member States.
On 5 February, the magnificent Great Hall of the prestigious Academy of Sciences of Lisbon hosted Portugal’s first conference on Secondary Publication Rights (SPR). Not even an extraordinary storm that struck Lisbon for several days could prevent an afternoon of lively discussion on the role legislation should play in advancing Open Access to publicly funded […]
This one-pager outlines the issues present within the Commission proposal for a Digital Omnibus. As it stands, the changes foreseen to the Open Data Directive would likely prompt public sector bodies to abandon open licences and adopt conditional licences, making these sources difficult or impossible to re-use in open projects and to combine with data […]
On 15 January, we celebrated the Public Domain Day 2026 at the Royal Library of Belgium, bringing together advocates, academics and practitioners from a variety of backgrounds. Like every year the expiry of copyright protection has led to many “new” heritage works entering the Public Domain. To celebrate the occasion, highlight the importance of the […]
Last week, we submitted our response to the European Commission’s consultation on the Digital Omnibus (PDF file). While the Commission already published its draft regulation in November 2025, the feedback period will remain open until 13 March 2026. We reiterate our belief that a more transparent and deliberate process, including extensive consultation with stakeholders before […]
The EU’s Digital Omnibus Proposal has sparked controversy, especially over the planned changes to the data protection regime. But the package goes beyond privacy rules. One amendment to the Open Data Directive in particular could have serious consequences, potentially undermining open projects such as the Wikimedia projects. As part of its “simplification” agenda, the Commission […]
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. […]
A Polish version of our brochure A Digital Knowledge Act for Europe is now available (as a PDF file). In this publication, we provide an overview of the barriers that prevent libraries, archives, universities and other knowledge institutions from carrying out their public interest mission in the digital environment and present solutions. Like the English […]
This is the Polish version of our brochure A Digital Knowledge Act for Europe. 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. The translation was done by COMMUNIA […]
A French version of our brochure A Digital Knowledge Act for Europe is now available (as a PDF file). In this publication, we provide an overview of the barriers that prevent libraries, archives, universities and other knowledge institutions from carrying out their public interest mission in the digital environment and present solutions. Like the English […]
This is the French version of our brochure A Digital Knowledge Act for Europe. 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. The translation was done by COMMUNIA […]
