Initiative For Harmonisation Of Copyright Exceptions In Europe

A new economically driven effort called the Copyright for Creativity Initiative is advocating the harmonisation of copyright exceptions across Europe, and is calling on the European Commission to act upon its 2008 Green Paper “Copyright in the Knowledge Economy” [pdf].

The initiative today released a declaration entitled “Copyright for Creativity – A Declaration for Europe,” co-signed by 16 organisations, such as the Free Software Foundation, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Knowledge Ecology International.

Exclusive rights have been harmonised but copyright exceptions “are radically out of line with the needs of the modern information technology,” the declaration states. This lack of harmonisation prevents the optimum circulation of knowledge-based goods and services across Europe, it says. Copyright exceptions would increase user access, and “propel science and learning, and therefore the knowledge economy, exponentially forward,” according to the declaration.