COMMUNIA

Universities, libraries and archives play a decisive role in providing access to knowledge and information for European citizens and, as such, are a crucial part of a functioning knowledge society. Unfortunately, the EU does not do enough to enable these institutions to pursue their public service mission in the digital environment. This needs to change! In order to discuss the issues that these institutions face and to identify a way forward, COMMUNIA is hosting an event on why Europe needs a Digital Knowledge Act. The event will take place on October 2nd, from 1500h to 1700h, and will bring together academics, representatives of civil society and EU policymakers to discuss legislative measures that would enable knowledge institutions to fulfil their public mission in the digital age. Learn more & register at the link below: https://lnkd.in/eJY34kKU

🧐 We just announced the first speakers for our event on why Europe needs a Digital Knowledge Act on October 2nd, from 1500h to 1700h. The event will bring together academics, representatives of civil society and EU policymakers to discuss legislative measures that would enable knowledge institutions, such as libraries, universities and other research organisations, to fulfil their public mission in the digital age. Find out more & stay up to date: https://lnkd.in/eJY34kKU

Soon the #AI Act will enter into force. In our latest blog post, we look at how the text interacts with the existing #copyright regime and provide an outlook on what needs to happen next in EU AI governance. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eqTFRf87

Last week, together with KnowledgeRights21 we released an independent expert study by Christophe Geiger and Bernd Justin Jütte, which identifies positive obligations for rights holders to grant access to individual users and institutions. Read the full study on our website: https://lnkd.in/edFubka2

In Italy, a new ministerial decree opens the door for the use of Public Domain heritage in scientific publications, but in many ways it still values control over access. 🖼 In a new blog post, Deborah De Angelis shines a light on the good and the bad of the new decree and the way forward: https://lnkd.in/eWiPj4n5

On Monday, together with KnowledgeRights21 we released an independent expert study by Christophe Geiger and Bernd Justin Jütte, which identifies positive obligations for rights holders to grant access to individual users and institutions. Read the full study on our website: https://lnkd.in/edFubka2

Today, COMMUNIA is releasing Policy Paper #21 on the right to license and own digital materials, in which we highlight a crucial challenge that users face in the digital environment: the increasing inability to own digital copies of #copyright-protected material. Legacy physical formats, such as books, CDs and DVDs, are increasingly replaced by their digital-only counterparts and many entertainment media, such as movies and musical works, but also scientific articles and books released today are published exclusively in digital-only formats. This has opened the door for publishers to license works in digital formats instead of selling them, acting as gatekeepers and exercising much more control over their catalogues than ever before. Knowledge institutions, such as universities, libraries and archives, are particularly affected. They now have to rely on licences to access digital formats which makes it considerably more difficult to access and retain new works. They are also at the mercy of licensors who can impose subscription bundles, implement licensing restrictions, force institutions to repurchase the same materials on a regular basis, or even refuse to license altogether. In our policy paper we propose the introduction of access rights for users, together with a balanced obligation to license or sell to knowledge institutions, to allow them to continue to distribute knowledge to the public and benefit society as a whole. This obligation should be introduced as part of a comprehensive legislative package, a Digital Knowledge Act, which would address the needs of knowledge institutions in the digital age more broadly. Read the full paper on our website: https://lnkd.in/g6duB3Xd

What happens to the Public Domain when the works in it have restricted access or paywalls? This is the case in several countries and we wanted to talk about it with COMMUNIA. Watch the recording of the latest COMMUNIA Salon to join the conversation: https://loom.ly/Jfbq_pY.

Today, COMMUNIA and KnowledgeRights21 are releasing an independent expert study, commissioned to Christophe Geiger and Bernd Justin Jütte, which develops the notion of #copyright as an access right and identifies positive obligations of rightholders in providing access to their works. Under EU copyright law, rights holders have 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, these formally legitimate rights can be exercised to unfairly segment access and restrict who can buy and license their digital works. These practices are, unfortunately, widespread and often undermine the rights of users of works which are rooted in fundamental rights and are crucial to enable education and scientific research. In this independent study, the researchers examine what obligations must be imposed on rightholders as a consequence of the rights users enjoy under copyright law. They call for a better legislative anchoring of access rights which comes with both negative and positive obligations for rights holders ranging from protecting all exceptions and limitations from contractual override to an obligation to facilitate access to works at least by certain privileged institutions. The full study "Copyright as an Access Right: Concretizing Positive Obligations for Rightholders to Ensure the Exercise of User Rights" by Christophe Geiger and Bernd Justin Jütte is available on our website: https://lnkd.in/e4xmH4G9

In case you missed Tuesday's COMMUNIA Salon on the hollowing of the Public Domain, the video recording is now available! 👀 Watch the discussion with our experts now! - Giulia Dore (University of Trento) - Giulia Priora (NOVA School of Law) - Andrea Wallace (University of Exeter) - Brigitte Vézina (Creative Commons) https://lnkd.in/gCQGxsk7