Five European research organisations – which together represent hundreds of universities, libraries, funders and research performing organisations – are calling on legislators to modify current EU copyright reform proposals.
CESAER (the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research); EUA (the European University Association); LERU (the League of European Research Universities); LIBER (the Association of European Research Libraries); and Science Europe say that amendments to five main areas are critical if Europe wants to be at the forefront of a prosperous and growing digital society, as described in the European Commission’s strategy for a Digital Single Market.
“Combined, we are the voice of thousands of researchers, educators, innovators, libraries and scholarly institutions. These are the people who create knowledge, look after it, keep it safe, build upon it, and help others take it forward. Our proposals are therefore with full appreciation of the need to safeguard those who create input as well as those who further its worth — indeed we represent both,” said Susan Reilly, Executive Director of LIBER.
The areas of the proposed Directive highlighted for modification are those that directly affect the research and education sector, and include Text and Data Mining (TDM).
On TDM, the organisations are calling for a redraft so that any individual or organisation with legal access to content can also legally use digital technologies to mine that content. The organisations also say that modifications are needed to the proposed legislation governing the supply of documents and use of materials for cross-border teaching and research, ancillary copyright and transparency.
The organisations say that without these modifications, cross-border research activities and the deployment of new technologies for research and innovation will be impeded by legal uncertainty.
http://libereurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Future-Proofing-European-Research-Excellence-full-statement.pdf