Julia Fallon
Community and Partner Engagement Manager , Europeana Foundation
The road that leads to Copyright reform
Insight into what we know about how Copyright reform will progress over the coming year.
Copyright reform is on the EU’s agenda. Following on from last years Public Consultation on the review of EU copyright rules, officials got busy reading all 9,500 responses (including ours). A summary report of the responses were published and proposals for reform were put on the back burner until the new Commissioners found their offices and set their agendas. In the meantime, the responses were rigorously reviewed by the wider IPR community notably an article by Leonhard Dobusch showing the imbalance of current copyright laws and Kennislands Paul Keller declaring “Europes’ Cultural Heritage Institutions deserve better!”.
Leonhard Dobusch showing the imbalance of current copyright laws. Click here for the full article.
New faces & a new home for Copyright
After the European elections the responsibility for Copyright shifted from DG Market to DG Connect - overseen by MEP Gunther Oettinger. In addition, Vice President for the Digital Single Market MEP Andrus Ansip, is charged with coordinating EU digital policy, which includes taking a special interest in the impact of copyright reform. Commission President Juncker, VP Ansip and MEP Oettinger have all promised that reform of copyright is high on their agenda for 2015.
Developing the recommendations for copyright reform
The European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) has formed a working group on IPR and copyright reform. Coordinated by MEP Jean Marie Cavada it meets monthly to hear from academics, expert and stakeholders on the all aspects of copyright reform. Rapporteur of the review of the InfoSoc Directive, MEP Julia Reda published a draft report on the 15th January discusses and provides recommendations on exclusive rights as well as exceptions & limitations in light of the feedback received during the public consultation.
Putting the copyright reform discussion into a broader context of the digital single market, MEP Madelin, VP Ansip and MEP Oettinger are hosting a stakeholder forum at the Commission on February 24th. You can register to attend here or follow the debates with #Digital4EU.
Making the arguments for Cultural Heritage Institutions
By the second half of 2015, and following the reports of the working group and conclusions of the stakeholder forum we expect the Commision to have published their recommendations for copyright reform. Using the consensus driven arguments that we submitted in our response to the public consultation, we are lobbying the Commission and MEPs to meet the needs of Europe’s cultural heritage institutions in their recommendations.
Get involved
We will publish updates via our pro blog - look out next week for our opinion on the draft report of the working group. You can also follow our activity and join the conversation at @EuropeanaIPR.