European Copyrigh Reform: Opened Upwardly Missive Of The Alphabet From European Enquiry Centres

On xiv September 2016, the European Commission published a bundle of reform proposals, including 2 Regulations (that accept direct number inward Member States) as well as 2 Directives (that volition accept to endure implemented into national laws).

CREATe accept at nowadays alerted us to a new OPEN LETTER TO MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL which reads:

EU Copyright Reform Proposals Unfit for the Digital Age

We are independent legal, economical as well as social scientists, as well as correspond the leading European centres researching intellectual belongings as well as project design law.

It is probable that you lot personally are beingness lobbied amongst regard to a complex Copyright Reform bundle that extends to three Regulations as well as 2 Directives (supported yesteryear over 400 pages of Impact Assessments).

The proposals state the correct words on the cover: “EU Copyright Rules Fit For The Digital Age. Better pick & access to content online as well as across borders. Improved copyright rules for education, research, cultural heritage as well as inclusion of disabled people. H5N1 fairer online environs for creators as well as the press.”

While the Proposed Directive on Copyright inward the Digital Single Market (COM(2016) 593 final) contains a number of reasonable, mutual feel measures (for event relating to cross edge access, out-of-commerce works, as well as access for the practise goodness of visually impaired people), in that place are 2 provisions that are fundamentally flawed. They practise non serve Earth interest.

Article xi seeks to practise an additional exclusive correct for press publishers, fifty-fifty though press publishers already laid out exclusive rights from authors via contract. The additional correct volition deter communication of news, obstruct online licensing, as well as volition negatively touching on authors.

Article xiii indirectly tries to better the E-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC) that arranges the liability of online intermediaries for user generated content into a shared responsibleness of rights holders as well as service providers. The proposals volition hinder digital project design as well as users’ participation.

With abide by to both provisions, independent empirical evidence has been ignored, consultations accept been summarised inward a misleading manner, as well as legitimate criticism has been labelled equally anti-copyright. We urge you lot to expect within the copyright bundle as well as attempt out independent expertise.

In club to facilitate debate, nosotros accept produced 2 curt appendices to this letter, setting out the key flaws of the proposals, as well as listing sources of evaluation. There is independent scientific consensus that Articles xi as well as xiii cannot endure allowed to stand.

First signatories include academics of the next Research Centres: The Centre for Intellectual Property as well as Information Law (CIPIL), University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; Centre d’Etudes Internationales de la Propriété Intellectuelle (CEIPI), University of Strasbourg, France; RCUK Copyright Centre (CREATe), University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK; Chair for Civil as well as Intellectual Property Law, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany; Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands; Max Planck Institute for Innovation as well as Competition, Munich, Germany; Center for Internet & Society (NEXA), Politecnico di Torino, Italy; Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Barcelona, Spain; SciencesPo Paris, France; Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology as well as Society & Tilburg Law as well as Economics Center, University of Tilburg, Netherlands

You may concord amongst the missive of the alphabet - you lot may disagree! But it's good worth a read

http://www.create.ac.uk/policy-responses/eu-copyright-reform/ and you lot tin download the missive of the alphabet here http://www.create.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/OpenLetter_EU_Copyright_Reform_24_02_2017.pdf

and here's a link  to the cast where academics tin bring together the missive of the alphabet https://goo.gl/forms/POxlrkYn3LcOJYzy1