The Director’s View: EU copyright reform

EU Copyright reform: Breakfast meeting in the European Parliament

On Monday 19 October, I was honoured to be the keynote speaker at a meeting organised by LERU, the League of European Research Universities, on the projected EU copyright reform. The Breakfast meeting was hosted by MEP Julia Reda (pictured),who was the rapporteur for the European Parliament’s Report on the projected reform of EU copyright legislation. 60 people attended the session (standing room only) on a Monday morning before 09.00 to hear a session on European copyright – clearly something is going on.

In my keynote presentation, I set the proposed European copyright reform against the backdrop of the emerging agenda of Open Science (=Open Research), with Open Access to publications, Open Data, new forms of research evaluation, and Citizen Science. I explained that the technique of Text and Data Mining (TDM) comprised a new set of tools for researchers, which changed the way they undertook research. TDM allows researchers to search huge amounts of digital material (publications, research data) and to find linkages, and therefore meaning, between them. This has the power to revolutionise research and to speed up discoveries to some of the great challenges which face Society. However, to enable these new technologies, there need to be changes in European copyright frameworks – namely an Exception to allow TDM in the forthcoming review of European copyright frameworks.

What European universities want is a mandatory, pan-European, Exception for TDM in at least the fields of education and research, which is mandatory, and which cannot be overridden by contracts. The right to read is the right to mine and, ideally, everyone should be able to undertake TDM activity on material to which they have lawful access.

The LERU Press Release, issued after the meeting is The Right to Read is the Right to Mine. My presentation to the MEPs and their Assistants is entitled What Universities want from EU copyright reform. 

The timetable for reform is now set for an announcement by the Commission in December 2015, followed by a series of legislative proposals in 2016. Exciting times for those of us who have lobbied for over 2 years for this copyright reform.

Paul Ayris

Director of UCL Library Services and UCL Copyright Officer