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 43rd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (hereinafter SCCR) made substantial progress on the issues advocated by the A2K Coalition (Access to Knowledge Coalition), which IPI is a member of. This year’s session was the most productive on the issues of exceptions and limitations. James Love (Knowledge Ecology International), a long-time observer at WIPO, described the outcome and the impact of the public interest community as the strongest since the conclusion of the Marrakech Treaty, which brought global copyright exceptions for the benefit of the blind and visually impaired.
Today, March 17, 2023, a symposium on law in the information society is taking place in the golden lecture hall of the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. Dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič will present copyright aspects of artificial intelligence at the symposium.
The third day of the 43rd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights is intended for discussion on the topic of exceptions and limitations to copyright, especially in connection with the right to research.
The 43rd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR/43) is being held in Geneva from March 13 to 17, 2023. The Intellectual Property Institute has a permanent observer status at WIPO since 2022 and is also a member of the Access to Knowledge Coalition (A2K coalition).