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.
Background Public sector documents and public speeches are of key concern to the public. New legislation and court decisions lay down the rules that govern our daily lives, and provide obligations and privileges to people who need to be aware of their presence in order to act upon them. Public documents produced by the executive […]
FragDenStaat – a German transparency initiative fighting for freedom of information – has published the law gazette for executive orders and other decrees by the German government, which is currently paywalled. And the project won‘t stop there. In Germany, civil society often faces problems accessing government documents that are locked behind paywalls. Instead of making […]
