LIBER calls for open access to knowledge during the pandemic
Today, 14 April 2020, LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries) published a statement, calling upon EU Member States’ governments, European Commissioners, publishers, authors and their trade bodies to enable open and remote access to educational and research materials in order to properly react to changes introduced with the new coronavirus pandemic.
As public life almost completely halted and moved online, education and research world flipped on its head practically overnight. Attending lectures in person or accessing materials in libraries are suddenly not possible anymore, which clearly demonstrates that an appropriate reaction of copyright regulation is in order if educational and research institutions are to continue fulfilling their mission of disseminating knowledge.
For this reason, LIBER today published the statement emphasising that the current regulation of copyright is unable to properly deal with the existing situation and calling for enabling remote access to materials for researchers and educational institutions.
In its statement, LIBER firstly addressed the European Commission and governments of EU Member States, urging them to ensure access to copyrighted materials for public libraries and research institutions by providing a time-limited and purposive interpretation of Article 5 of the new Copyright Directive. Additionally, LIBER calls upon publishers, authors and their trade bodies to publicly pledge to enable remote access to their e-books and use of copyrighted works aimed solely at students, teachers and researchers for a limited time. Lastly, LIBER pointed to inadequacy of copyright laws for dealing with emergency situations, such as medical, environmental or economic crisis, and underlined the importance of transition to Open Access models as soon as possible.
You can read the statement in full here.
It is worth noting that LIBER is not the only organization to call for an appropriate reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic in the recent weeks. Recently, Communia sent an open letter to WIPO (IPI is amongst the signatories), urging WIPO to ensure broad access to copyrighted materials.
The 4th Open Knowledge Day took place on Tuesday 17 October 2023, with an accompanying workshop on 18 October 2023. This year it was organised by the Open Data and Intellectual Property Institute (ODIPI) and supported by Knowledge Rights 21 (KR21).
We invite you to the fourth Open Knowledge Day and the workshop, which will take place this year within the framework of the programme and with the support of Knowledge Rights 21. The event will bring together experts from different European countries to discuss two topics: the first part will deal with the legal basis for data analytics, which is a key part of machine learning and related artificial intelligence, and the general exception for research. In the second part, open science in theory and practice will be presented both in Slovenia and in some Western Balkan countries. Representatives of research and educational institutions from Slovenia and the Western Balkan countries, as well as interested members of the public, are invited to attend.
Dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič, a renowned expert in copyright law, has joined the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where she will serve as an affiliate researcher for the next two years.
On Friday, October 6, 2023, the online seminar “Practical Experiences in Resolving Copyrights of Modern Book Works” took place. The seminar addressed relevant questions concerning user access to literary works in digital form.