European Copyright Action Days

Between 20 and 21 March the European Copyright Action Days took place in Brussels. Dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič also attended the event.

The end of March was the perfect time for IPI to spring into action at the European Copyright Action Days, organised in Brussels between 20 and 21 March by the Communia Association, together with other organizations like Copyright 4 Creativity and Create.Refresh. The aim of the event: making it clear to EU lawmakers that the copyright reform effort that is currently being discussed in the EU institutions is not good enough and bringing stakeholders together to discuss the shortcomings of the current reform proposal as well as new ideas on how to make up for them.

As part of the Action Days a roundtable on the future of education was organised and hosted by Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake, with over 40 policymakers and stakeholders attending. Dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič spoke at this full room event at the European Parliament about the position of the Slovenian Ministry of Education on copyright reform and the problems of having valid arguments against the flaws of the new legislation heard at intergovernmental negotiations within the Slovenian government.

The afternoon event called COMMUNIA salon in the Museum of Natural Sciences brought together more than 70 activists, academics and policy makers to discuss challenges on the intersection of creativity, value creation and copyright in the online environment. The discussions, lead by speakers like Creative Commons’s Paul Keller and Mozilla’s Raegan MacDonald, attempted to draw up a perspective that looks beyond the current legislative proposal and into the future of copyright.

The Action Days came to a close after a round table with MEP Julia Reda and her team of EU Pirates, who offered much appreciated insight into the current state of play within the EU Council and the shadow sessions, where policy makers discuss very public matters very far from the public eye, as well as provided generous tips on who to reach out to within the European Parliament and how to highlight our common goal for a fairer and more balanced EU copyright system.

Find out more about the event here. The photos of the event are accessible here.