From IP Watch
EU Commissioner Hails Open Knowledge, Urges Copyright ReformPublished on 17
July 2014 @ 7:27 pm
[image: Print This Post]
http://www.ip-watch.org/2014/07/17/eu-commissioner-hails-open-knowledge-urge...
Print This Post
http://www.ip-watch.org/2014/07/17/eu-commissioner-hails-open-knowledge-urge...
By William New http://www.ip-watch.org/author/william/, Intellectual
Property Watch
Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission responsible for the
Digital Agenda, today hailed open knowledge in government, science, the
internet, and education, and called again for “urgent reform” of copyright.
In a speech http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-556_en.htm to
the Open Knowledge Foundation in Berlin, Kroes said openness and sharing of
ideas is essential to the economy and innovation. Kroes is in office until
31 October, as the European Commission is undergoing its five-year
transition.
In particular, Kroes suggested that copyright needs to be reformed to
ensure it does not interfere with access to knowledge in education. On the
surface, this might appear inconsistent with views taken by the EU in
negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization, where it has
shown steadfast resistance to strengthening limitations and exceptions for
libraries and archives (*IPW*, WIPO, 5 May 2014
http://www.ip-watch.org/2014/05/05/hopes-dampened-for-copyright-exceptions-f...).
But in the WIPO committee, discussions on exceptions for education are
separate.
“It’s a crime when teachers are prevented from freely sharing open
educational resources,” Kroes said in prepared remark. “There’s so much we
can achieve by making every classroom digital. Education that is not off
the peg: but made to measure, for every child. That is what we want to
achieve through open education.”
“That shows how copyright rules need to change: but it’s just one example,”
she said. “Those rules were designed for a different age, more about
limitation and control than creativity and freedom. Holding back ideas from
open education to data mining: copyright needs urgent reform.”
She also insisted that public information from any EU government must be
publicly available to citizens “without complex licensing restrictions” or
high costs. EU member states have one more year to pass laws on the right
to reuse public information, she said.
On open science, Kroes said the Horizon 2020 research and development
campaign “will offer 80 billion euros for research and innovation. Our
biggest ever investment. And every resulting publication will be openly and
freely available.” But she noted that national level research is up to
national governments’ discretion. She encouraged participation in an EU
consultation called ‘Science in Transition
http://tinyurl.com/opendigitalscience‘, which is open until the end of
September.
On open internet, she said the Commission has proposed new rules protecting
net neutrality, which she said she hopes national governments will make a
priority.
And she gave encouragement to open source, noting that her own website runs
on it.
Related Articles:
- European Commission VP Kroes Urges Open Internet, Prods Copyright
Owners
http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/03/21/european-commission-vp-kroes-urges-open-i...
- European Commissioner Kroes Hints At Actions To Preserve Open Internet
http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/06/04/european-commissioner-kroes-hints-at-acti...
- EU’s Kroes Calls For New Thinking On Copyright System
http://www.ip-watch.org/2011/11/21/eus-kroes-calls-for-new-thinking-on-copyr...
*William New may be reached at wnew@ip-watch.ch