Blog

On July 13th, 2022, a coalition of over fifty civil society organizations representing educators, researchers, libraries, archives and digital rights advocates sent a letter to the delegates representing the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at its 2022 General Assembly to support the application of seven Wikimedia chapters as observers. On July […]

The recent CJEU decision on Article 17 of the copyright directive has defined a framework for the use of automated content moderation. The Court considers filtering obligations compatible with the right to freedom of expression and information as long as they are limited to use cases that allow for a robust automated distinction between legal […]

On Tuesday, the 31st of May 2022, COMMUNIA presented twenty new policy recommendations that will guide our association’s work for the next decade. We brought together fellow activists, academics, policy makers and other stakeholders from across the copyright policy spectrum in Brussels to celebrate the occasion. Our new policy recommendations build on the principles of […]

Join us on Tuesday the 31st of May at 1700h at Townhall Europe in Brussels for the launch of the new COMMUNIA policy recommendations followed by a networking reception. We will present the 20 policy recommendations which we have developed with input from leading academics and access to knowledge advocates over the past months and […]

We are attending the 42nd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) in Geneva. Today, the Committee is discussing the issue of limitations and exceptions for educational and research institutions and for persons with other disabilities (Agenda Item 8) and the following statement was delivered on behalf of COMMUNIA: Dear Delegates, It […]

In our capacity as permanent observers of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), we are attending the 42nd sessionof the Committee, which is taking place in a hybrid format of in-person and online participation from 9 to 13 May 2022, in Geneva. Today, the Committee is discussing the protection of broadcasting […]

Yesterday, China blocked the ad-hoc accreditation of Wikimedia chapters of France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, and Switzerland as official observers to the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Previously, China had rejected the Wikimedia’s Foundation application to observer status to this UN agency. WIPO SCCR discussions […]

We are pleased to announce that we will launch the new COMMUNIA policy recommendations on Tuesday, May 31st, at 1700 CET, at Townhall Europe in Brussels. Less than a year ago, we celebrated COMMUNIA’s 10th anniversary, assessing how its foundational 14 policy recommendations contributed to the expansion of the public domain during the 2011-2021 decade. […]

On the 28th of April, we hosted the second COMMUNIA Salon of 2022 to discuss the implications of the CJEU judgment in Case C-401/19, which rejected the request of the Polish government to annul Article 17 and confirmed that this provision can be reconciled with the right to freedom of expression provided that certain users […]

Today, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its long awaited judgement on the compliance of the new liability regime established by Article 17 of the DSM Directive with fundamental rights. Rejecting the request of the Polish government to annul Article 17(4)(b) and the last half sentence of subparagraph (c), the Court confirmed […]