Published research outputs often end up locked behind paywalls, unavailable to many researchers and the broader public, impeding scientific – and human – progress. Despite progress in the area of open science, research funded by the European public is no exception to this. In many cases, European taxpayers are essentially asked to pay up twice, […]
On the 6th of March 2024, we were delighted to welcome a full house at our “Unlocking Knowledge Conference” at Town Hall Europe. At this event, we asked academics, civil society representatives and EU policymakers about the issues knowledge institutions and researchers still face when accessing and using copyrighted materials in their activities, particularly in […]
A fair and modern copyright framework is essential for an enabling European research environment. However, researchers often find that their access, use and reuse of resources essential to their activities is still limited by copyright and related rights. While, thanks to the 2019 DSM directive, they now benefit from a EU wide text and data […]
Access and use of public sector documents and political speeches are key to a thriving democracy and civil society as they ensure transparency and accountability. Furthermore, they provide society with important historical records about political decision making. Copyright and paywalls, however, can render access to these materials difficult or prohibitively expensive. Today, COMMUNIA is releasing […]
On 6th of March, from 1500h to 1700h, COMMUNIA will host the “Unlocking Knowledge Conference” at Town Hall Europe, which will bring together academics, representatives of civil society and EU policymakers to discuss how to enable knowledge institutions to play a bigger part in creating a flourishing information ecosystem. Knowledge institutions – educational, research, and […]
As we approach the final decisions on the AI Act, with the member state vote scheduled for Friday of this week, there are still rumblings of discontent among member states. Surprisingly, one of the most prominent sticking points is the French government’s dissatisfaction with parts of the copyright transparency provisions in the final compromise text. […]
On December 12th, we celebrated the Eurovision DSM Contest Afterparty, reviewing the implementation of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive in (almost) all EU member states. For those who were unable to attend or who would like to rewatch the event, the recording is now available: To kick off the festivities, Teresa Nobre […]
As we’re approaching the European election season, COMMUNIA is rolling out its proposals for the ‘24-’29 legislature. In an op-ed published on Euractiv, we ask the next Commission and Parliament to finally put the needs of Europe’s knowledge institutions, such as libraries, universities and schools front and center. Over the next five years, we need […]
Today, we are publishing an open letter from civil society organizations to members of the European Parliament ahead of the plenary vote on the IMCO own-initiative report on the implementation of the 2018 Geo-blocking Regulation scheduled for Tuesday, December 12, 2023. The letter refutes a number of grossly exaggerated claims made by rightsholders in an […]
Somewhat out of sight of the public eye there is another fight about EU copyright rules going on. This time it is about cross border online access to audiovisual works, and the widespread practice of streaming platforms to block access to customers from other member states – aka geo-blocking. Over the past weeks, we have […]
