COMMUNIA’s Post

So excited at the opportunity to publish #openaccess with the Business and Human Rights Journal!! Coming soon to a screen near you, my article titled: “Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence (mHRDD) Laws Caught Between Rituals and Ritualism: The Forms and Limits of Business Authority in the Global Governance of Business and Human Rights.” #BizHumanRights

At the end of 2023 an independent review of University spin outs in the UK demonstrated what an important part of the entrepreneuriual growth eco systems these businesses are. The UK has the only technology sector worth more than US$1 trillion in Europe and spin outs form an important part of this. University spin outs have a lower chance of failure and in focussing in on some higher investment risk areas like life sciences they allow the UK to participate in industries of the future. Europehttps://lnkd.in/eCCawQHj

New academic work: My new article, Reimagining Digital Libraries, is now on SSRN. It discusses how public libraries operate in the digital space, their (rather significant) challenges, and how we might tackle them. The piece is forthcoming at Georgetown LJ in the fall. Read it while it's hot. https://lnkd.in/gWec7wUf

Interesting read in yesterday's scholarly kitchen https://lnkd.in/eHrbqi2d - we are pleased to see pushback on the 'transitional' agreements that have not brought about real change, and the APC system that underpins them. The Jisc report underpinning the article reports savings to libraries of £42m through TA agreements, but this is when measured against conventional subscriptions and APCs. We wonder instead what a comparison would look like between TAs, and what could have been enabled by funding diamond schemes and infrastructure instead.

👋 𝙃𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙪𝙥 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙠’𝙨 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙩-𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩? COMMUNIA and KnowledgeRights21 commissioned an independent expert study from Christophe Geiger (Luiss Guido Carli University) & Bernd Justin Jütte (UCD Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin & LUISS). The report highlights growing obstacles in the digital transition: access inequality and information gatekeeping. 🗣️ “The dematerialization of cultural, artistic and scientific consumption, almost ironically, has made 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲. This is 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 true in relation to 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝘀 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀, who obtain the power to tailor access and use conditions through licensing and technical protection means.” Luckily, there’s a solution to fix this growing unbalance, it just requires some political courage: 🗣️ “Moving against this trend requires 𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 ‘𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀’ 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 within copyright’s normative structure and to equip privileged users with tools as equally potent as those granted to rightholders.” 🫵  Dear policy makers, it’s time to show that you care about access to culture and knowledge! 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gJwFJPsi #EU #UserRights #ExceptionsAndLimitations #AccessRight #AccessToCulture #AccessToKnowledge #copyright #empowerment #education #research #innovation #ObligationToLicense #eBooks #eBookSOS #eLending #TPMs #TechnologicalProtectionMeasures #licensing #UnfairContracts

Such a busy day yesterday that I missed our wisdom Wednesday hump day reading. :( But I couldn't go without sharing the piece I wanted to, because it's this insightful set of thoughts from the Australian Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley, talking about the need for Australia to have uniform access to the latest research work. The article sort of brushes over it (and sometimes gets it a little wrong!), but the nuance here is in the approach to how she wants to do this. Whilst she recognises that open access is our end goal, she acknowledges that a lot of knowledge is locked up by big publishers, so as a stopgap the proposal is for the government to help fund access to this so that everyone has the ability to read it. Of course as noted in the piece, the devil is in the details on how this is worked out so we're not taken advantage of, but the core idea is quite interesting. And of course as somebody pretty involved in open access (h/t to Open Access Publishing Association and also ASCILITE's Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET)), it would be great if the next step was to slowly move away from those publishers towards a Diamond Open Access model! ;) Check it out and let me know what you think, particularly in terms of the various pros and cons that are pretty clearly outlined in the piece. Is this a good stopgap measure, or is it a little patchy? Love to know your thoughts! https://lnkd.in/gerY-bsS

Many say the system of publishing research from Australian universities and researchers is broken. The Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley is looking at how Australians can access our publically funded research and published articles from other nations this article from the Guardian explains''“We’ve set up a crazy system where publishers own and control knowledge and we’ve let them do that,” Foley says. “Researchers give content for free, sign over copyright, and publishers make a lot of money. “You can get rubbish, nonsense and misinformation online for free but you have to pay for the good stuff. We need to make sure we’re getting the right information out there.” Journal publishers have one of the highest profit margins of any industry, taking in an estimated $20bn US a year. Five major players control more than half of the market, led by Elsevier, with a profit margin of nearly 40% – in excess of Apple, Netflix, Google and Amazon. None are Australian, a market composed of small journal publishers that’s been on a steady decline for a decade. ''https://lnkd.in/gfpfx8qY

CFP Quaderns del CAC issue 50 – October 2024 Radio: memory, resilience and transformation **Deadline: 27 May 2024** You can send your texts via the OJS platform of Quaderns del CAC in RACO.   Quaderns del CAC is an electronic scientific journal on audiovisual communication published by the Catalan Audiovisual Council. It is an annual journal published every October entirely in Catalan, Spanish and English. The journal undertakes the correction and translation of the texts in the three languages. There are no article submission or processing charges to submit or publish in this journal. Quaderns del CAC is a diamond open access journals with free access to their content and no article submission or processing charges to the authors. Besides the monographic theme, the journal has the miscellaneous section "Articles", which is always open to receive articles and in which you can participate with texts on ongoing research on communication and audiovisual culture. ---- Monographic section issue 50. Radio: memory, resilience and transformation This year marks the centenary of radio in Catalonia, and Quaderns del CAC wants to join in the commemoration. Thus, in the monographic section of issue 50, we would like to bring together theoretical and empirical works that help us to understand the past, to study the present and to look ahead to the future and the potential of radio around the world. https://lnkd.in/dJtWmN2h

EVERYONE needs access to information for work, home, education, leisure, civic duties, research, inventions, creations, writing, etc. There is nothing new under the sun.* One is inspired & builds on from what has gone before, whether it is in writing, music or other creative activities. Fair use helps everyone, because it allows LAWFUL use and reuse of other works for the above purposes. Imagine having to get permission for each and everything one needs to create something new. Would be virtually impossible and extremely expensive, and would certainly stymie if not prohibit new creations, especially in the digital space, where users are creators, producers and publishers; and creators, producers and publishers are users. *Nothing-New-Under-the-Sun.pdf (arl.org)

📖 Last week the European Commission published a new study evaluating the effects of the EU #copyright framework on #research, with the aim to improve the access and reuse of research results, publications, and data for scientific purposes.     🔎 Key findings  ▪ The study sheds a light on the need to adopt a Secondary Publication Right regime, ensure #flexibility, and open-ended #research exceptions.  ▪ It recommends addressing the differentiation between #commercial and non-commercial uses of #data, considered as outdated.  ▪ It suggests adopting guidance relating #text and #data mining provisions in Article 3 and 4 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market to enhance awareness and promote a more uniform approach across Member States.    💡 #EARE welcomes the comprehensive overview of the EU’s #research and #innovation legal landscape as well as the insights of the study. Our alliance shares the study’s approach, advocating for knowledge sharing, and open access to data, core principles of EARE.    ✒ We encourage the Commission to follow the recommendations of this study, clarifying text and data mining provisions to unleash Europe’s full research potential.    You can find the results of this new study here ➡https://lnkd.in/eqNiicSA