The Europeana Copyright Community is one of the Europeana Network Association's specialist communities. Explore their work plan for 2025. If you are not already a member, you can also join the Europeana Copyright Community through the Europeana Network Association.
The aspirations of the Copyright Community are to support the Europeana Initiative in the development of adequate data governance mechanisms and their implementation, through for example training resources.
The Copyright Community also aspires to aid practitioners in the cultural heritage sector to navigate copyright in their collections, to help them advocate for adequate institutional support around copyright, and to provide guidance around how to contribute to adequate legal frameworks in their countries.
By doing that, the community supports three out of the four long-term aims set in the Europeana Initiative Vision 2030 and Impact Model, namely ‘LT.1 Just economic and social growth through cultural data used for personal, professional and/or economic purposes’; ‘LT.2 People are more productive and innovative after engaging with knowledge development and transfer activities’, and ‘LT.3 An empowered cultural heritage sector based on the commons principles, data sovereignty and decentralisation’.
As part of the impact pathway ‘P1 Creativity and engagement with cultural heritage’ leading to ‘LT.1 Just economic and social growth through cultural data used for personal, professional and/or economic purposes’, the copyright community will:
continue to raise awareness about the benefits of removing barriers to reuse, for example through the article 14 Task Force.
Contributing to the organisation of the Public Domain Day event.
This should lead to more people being able to use cultural heritage.
As part of the impact pathway ‘P2 Knowledge, skills and innovation’ leading to ‘LT.2 People are more productive and innovative after engaging with knowledge development and transfer activities’, the copyright community will:
organise regular office hours sessions
write blog posts about latest developments of interest to the sector
develop guidelines on how to put in place practical measures to support copyright management
And develop overviews of legal and implementation differences across countries on specific topics.
This should lead to new knowledge gained by our audiences and to this knowledge being actively applied in practice.
As part of the impact pathway ‘P3 Network development and collaboration’ leading to ‘LT.3 An empowered cultural heritage sector based on the commons principles, data sovereignty and decentralisation’, the copyright community will:
Bring the community together to develop policy positions leading to improved copyright and other legal system
Contribute to the development of data governance mechanisms that support the functioning of the data space
This should lead to increased motivation to cooperate and share knowledge with others in the data space ecosystem.
Copyright community members are mainly cultural heritage professionals looking for solutions to legally make cultural heritage available online, as well as teachers and researchers interested in legally reusing digital cultural heritage in their activities.
Ellen van Keer (Digital heritage expert, Meemoo)
Ana Lazarova (IP lawyer, Digital Republic Association)
Andrea Wallace (Associate Professor, University of Exeter)
Annabelle Shaw (Copyright & Rights Systems Manager, British Film Institute)
Ariadna Matas (Policy Advisor, Europeana Foundation), Community Manager
Bartolomeo Meletti (Head of Knowledge Exchange, CREATe, University of Glasgow)
Brigitte Vézina (Director of Policy and Open Culture, Creative Commons)
Deborah De Angelis (Chapter Lead, Creative Commons Italian Chapter)
Hande Ozkayagan Praendl (Research Associate, University of Vienna)
Maarten Zeinstra (Intellectual Property Lawyer and Information Professional, IP Squared)
Marina Markellou (Ethics Advisor National Centre Scientific Research Demokritos)
Ellen van Keer is the copyright community Chair. Ariadna Matas is the copyright community manager. Members of the steering group take the lead or contribute to one or more of the areas foreseen in the action plan, including by leading task forces and working groups, depending on their knowledge, experience and preference.
The steering group meets once a month online. An in-person meeting is generally planned once a year, coinciding with relevant events such as the annual Public Domain Day celebration or the annual Europeana Conference.
The copyright community communicates and raises awareness of products, events and important developments through Europeana Pro, a mailing list and social media, including X and LinkedIn.
Where relevant, the copyright community will invite guests to write posts to be published onEuropeana Pro on relevant topics for the sector.
Copyright office hours and Policy office hours
Continue setting up the copyright and policy office hours to have a space where community members can engage and discuss shared questions. Each session will focus on a specific topic.
Support public domain day celebrations
Contribute to the organisation and participate in the annual event to raise awareness about the public domain and bring attention to success stories and policy developments in this area.
Support the use of the out of commerce works provisions in the CDSM Directive
Participate in and enable conversations amongst actors in the cultural heritage and other sectors to support the implementation of the out of commerce works provisions.
Safeguard the public domain
Continue strengthening the public domain through cooperation across professionals via the article 14 task force.
Support the community with the development and use of AI
Develop a statement on copyright and AI in the cultural heritage sector. Act as a hub for challenges and questions on the developing role of AI in relation to legal aspects. Help to build a network of peers working with copyright and AI. Consider the creation of a new task force on AI.
Promote and help develop the Europeana Licensing Framework (ELF) and future rules for the governance of data in the data space
Encourage the use of the ELF through awareness raising and training resources. Support the development of updates to the ELF toward new data governance mechanisms.
Develop resources to support copyright management and data protection in digital cultural heritage
Continue to promote and update the copyright management guidelines for practitioners and enrich it with additional resources and examples. Explore mechanisms to support cultural heritage professionals in dealing with data protection and privacy related decisions when making digital cultural heritage available.
Advocate for adequate policies and laws for the cultural heritage sector
Define policy positions and engage with policy makers in order to ensure that copyright and other legal and policy areas enable cultural heritage organisations to fulfil their public interest mission.
No | Description | Suggested reporting timeline and approach | Comment(s) |
1 | Number of Community- or steering group-organised activities, e.g. presentations, events or training |
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2 | Number of participants/beneficiaries of discrete Community-led activities |
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3 | Satisfaction rating relating to ENA Community-led activities |
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4 | Views of main landing page and key Community resources (to be agreed per Community and promoted / disseminated accordingly) |
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2000 euros for public domain day
2500 euros for enabling copyright community steering group members to meet face to face
Explore and download the Copyright Community's Work Plans from the previous years.
