(Hyper)links are the fundamental building blocks of the web, but the practice of linking has come under attack over the last few years. If copyright holders are able to censor or control links to legitimate content, it could disrupt the free flow of information online and hurt access to crucial news and resources on the […]
Today the European Commission presented an ambitious package of reform proposals known as the Digital Single Market (DSM) Strategy for Europe. Among other topics like ‘Affordable high quality parcel delivery’ and ‘Building the data economy’ the DSM strategy represents the first concrete announcement of upcoming changes to the European Union’s outdated 2001 Copyright Framework. As […]
In January MEP Felix Reda presented a draft report on the implementation of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (a.k.a the Copyright Directive). This draft report has proven to be hugely controversial […]
We are publishing today our position paper on copyright reform in Europe (PDF), as a statement in the ongoing debate that focuses on the reform of the Information Society Directive. Our position is based on the 14 policy recommendations that are at the heart of our organisation, as well as on our previous policy documents. […]
“We are calling for fair copyright that is fit for purpose and will benefit every European citizen” – that is the main message of the newly published manifesto, drafted by the Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA), convened by the British Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). The London Manifesto is one more […]
The aim of this position paper is to respond to the call made by European Commission to open public discussion on digital single market and its expected shape in the coming years. We fully agree with President Juncker that we need to “break down national silos in copyright”. As was noted by President Juncker in […]
A balancing of viewpoints and interests in the European copyright debate has been a commonly shared goal since the 2013 “Licenses for Europe” stakeholder dialogue. A key outcome of last year’s EU consultation on copyright has been that the current copyright law is unbalanced – while rights holders and producers are satisfied with the status […]
Today Copyright 4 Creativity (C4C), a coalition of 35 organisations from the NGO, library and technology sectors (including a number of COMMUNIA members) is launching a copyright manifesto. The copyright manifesto is intended as a contribution to the ongoing review of the European Union’s copyright rules. With the manifesto, Copyright 4 Creativity wants to stress […]
As part of the public consultation on a review of the EU copyright rules the EU commission included two questions related to a single EU copyright title. These questions refer to the fact that in the current situation all member states of the EU have their own copyright laws. These laws need to meet the […]
For those of us looking forward to copyright rules that enable European cultural heritage institutions to provide online access to their collections, two important things happened last week: on Wednesday 29th October, the Orphan Works directive (OW directive) came into force and on Saturday 1st November, the new European Commission headed by Jean-Claude Juncker assumed office. The first event […]
