Changing the numbers of the articles won’t make the EU copyright reform better!
If the European Parliament adopts the Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market next week, especially Article 13 (which was changed to Article 17 just before the vote), the internet as a space for communication, where everyone freely communicates with everyone else, will change drastically.
The problematic provision will pose an obligation to platforms, on which users upload certain contents, to conclude license agreement for practically every possible copyrighted work, otherwise they will be liable for the uploaded content infringing copyright. To avoid a relatively high degree of legal risk, platforms will in doubt block the content (with upload filters that are currently not able to distinguish lawful use from copyright infringement) and with this avoid liability.
To better understand the consequences of Article 13, watch this video or read the article and scheme prepared by Communia on this issue.
Yesterday, European companies joined the civil initiative fighting against censorship, organizations in the scientific, economic, librarian, educational and other sectors warning about the threat to freedom of expression, open education and research, as well as the rightsholders in the audio-visual and sports sector, entertainment and music industry on the other side who believe that the directive imposes too much obligations on them. In an open letter 130 European companies exposed the negative implications of Articles 11 (now Article 15) and 13 (now Article 17) on the European economy. Changing the numbers of the Directive in not enough, Europe needs a better legislative solution!
The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) has launched a new application that provides access to digital books to individuals who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise disabled.
Communia in collaboration with Centrum Cyfrowe is conducting an international research project, the main subject of which is the experience of teachers in the use of copyrighted works during the time of remote education imposed by the pandemic of COVID-19. You are kindly invited to participate!
On April 6, 2021, at 14.00, dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič, LL.M., LL.M. will deliver a lecture on data analytics (TDM) and copyright at the Faculty of Computer Science, University of Ljubljana.
On Thursday, 1 April 2021, Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) will hold an online event dedicated to Article 17 of the new EU Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the digital single market, titled: “Platform liability under Article 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, Automated Filtering and Fundamental Rights: An Impossible Match”. Welcome!