On Tuesday, December 12th, from 1500h to 1630 CET, we are hosting a virtual COMMUNIA salon to discuss the implementation of the DSM Directive in (almost) all EU Member States.

Over the past four years, we have mapped the implementation of the DSM Directive across all EU Member States as part of our Eurovision DSM Contest. As most Member States have finalised their implementation of the Directive, it is time to look back and the last four years and crown Europe’s users’ rights Champion.

Joining us for the ceremony will be Christina Angelopoulos, Felix Reda, Paul Keller and Teresa Nobre who will share their views and present their research on the implementation process across the EU.

If you want to find out our implementation rankings and see whether any Member State has received the coveted “douze points” or if you just need an excuse to get in the Eurovision mood before May 2024, register now and we will send you a Zoom link for the event.

Disclaimer: Clicking on this link will direct you to a Google Form and may lead to data being collected by and shared with third parties. Proceed only if you agree.

The post COMMUNIA Salon: Eurovision DSM Contest Afterparty appeared first on COMMUNIA Association.

The labour markets for creatives have been taken over by Big Tech and Big Content. How can we take them back and ensure that creative workers are paid fairly? Rebecca Giblin, professor at Melbourne Law School, and Cory Doctorow, author and journalist, describe in their joint work the new type of capitalism that we find today, especially in the creative industries, which they call “chokepoint capitalism.”

Big tech companies with their platforms have advanced to become market-dominating players. They act as powerful intermediaries between consumers and creators and control the trade in creative goods as if through a bottleneck. Their market power allows them to influence the rules in their favour and to strengthen their stranglehold on creatives in order to skim off an ever larger share of the profits generated. Through their analysis of chokepoint capitalism, Giblin and Doctorow also arrive at insights into how this system can be overcome and develop recommendations for doing so.

Rebecca Giblin spoke about the core arguments of the book, after which we engaged in a moderated panel discussion with her and other guests to exchange their analysis and approaches to solutions.

Participants:

• Sandra Trostel
  Independent film maker, storyteller and researcher
• Justus Dreyling
  Policy Director of COMMUNIA
• Rebecca Giblin
  ARC Future Fellow and Professor at Melbourne Law School and Director of the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia
• Zara Rahman (moderator)
  Researcher, writer and moderator

Video recording:

A video recording of the event is available on YouTube.

The post Book launch: Chokepoint Capitalism appeared first on COMMUNIA Association.

At the workshop, three websites/databases tracking the status of users’ rights and copyright flexibilities in Europe were launched: https://www.copyrightexceptions.eu, http://www.copyrightflexibilities.eu and http://www.copyrightuser.eu. In addition, wegathered feedback on the websites’ functionality and plan their future. We were joined by copyright experts who contributed to the mapping and stakeholders representing various groups of beneficiaries to discuss the state of copyright flexibilities and policy options at the EU and national levels.

For any queries, please contact rosie.allison@libereuriope.org.

The post COMMUNIA and reCreating Europe workshop on copyright flexibilities appeared first on COMMUNIA Association.

The 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 and illegal content. In the context of Article 17, upload filters may only be used by online platforms to block manifest infringements of copyright law. This judgement raises a host of important questions for the enforcement of copyright law as well as for the compatibility of upload filters with fundamental rights even beyond copyright law.

Opening Remarks

• Susanne Zels (Robert Bosch Stiftung)
• Felix Reda (Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte)

Session 1: Fragmentation or Harmonisation? The impact of the Judgement on National Implementations

• Bernd Justin Jütte (​​University College Dublin): Imperatives for Implementing Article 17: The Importance of National Implementations
• Finn Hümmer (Stockholm University): Implications from C-401/19 for National Transpositions under the Light of Freedom of Expression
• Jasmin Brieske (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt): The Impact of the Enactment of the German OCSSP Act on Selected Online Platforms
• Christina Angelopoulos (University of Cambridge): The National Implementations of Article 17 of the EU’s CDSM Directive
• Chair: Paul Keller (COMMUNIA)

Session 2: Balancing Enforcement & Usage Rights in Practice

• Natasha Mangal (University of Strasbourg): Regulating Creativity Online: Proposal for an EU Copyright Institution
• Daniel Holznagel: Don’t Touch the Ceiling – Why We Should not Narrow the EU No-Monitoring-Obligation-Rules
• Martin Husovec (London School of Economics): Mandatory Filtering Does Not Always Violate Freedom of Expression: Lessons from Poland v Council and European Parliament
• Chair: Felix Reda (Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte)

Session 3: Beyond the Judgement: The Future of Freedom of Expression

• Kevin O’Sullivan (Dublin City University): A New Conceptualisation of the ‘Essence’ of Fundamental Rights
• Sabine Jacques (University of East Anglia): A Two-Tier System for Freedom of Expression
• Till Kreutzer (iRights.Law): Towards a European Right to Remix (?) – On the New Pastiche Exception in the German Copyright Act
• Chair: Teresa Nobre (COMMUNIA)

The post Filtered Futures appeared first on COMMUNIA Association.

The event was kicked-off by COMMUNIA president Paul Keller, who in his opening remarks (reproduced in full at the end of this post) argued for the need to put discussion about copyright policy back on the agenda of the EU legislator: three years after the adoption of the DSM directive, it is clear that the EU copyright framework remains a fragmented mess that does not adequately address the needs of users and creators in an increasingly complex digital environment. Paul Keller stressed that COMMUNIA hopes that the new set of policy recommendations will contribute to an open and respectful debate with policy makers and stakeholders from across the copyright policy spectrum about how we can work towards a more just and open EU copyright system that embraces the opportunities offered by digital transformation for users and creators alike.

Presentation by Paul Keller and Teresa Nobre

Comments by Tiemo Wölken

Comments by Séverine Dusollier

The post Twenty copyright policy recommendations for the next decade appeared first on COMMUNIA Association.

The Court’s judgement in case C-401/19 marked  an important moment in the discussions about Article 17 as it provides more clarity on the European Commission’s implementation guidance that was issued in June of the previous year, following an extensive stakeholder dialogue.

For this Salon Communia was joined by Marco Giorello — Head of the European Commission’s Copyright Unit at DG CONNECT, João Pedro Quintais — Assistant Professor at the Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam, Eliška Pírková — Global Freedom of Expression Lead at Access Now — and Felix Reda — former MEP and project lead Control © at the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte.

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The post The new EU Copyright exceptions – a model for the world? appeared first on COMMUNIA Association.

His Opinion finds that Article 17 is compatible with the freedom of expression and information guaranteed in Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and consequently advises the Court to reject the annulment request. While the annulment of problematic provisions would be preferable, the opinion provides important clarification on user rights safeguards.

For this Salon, Paul Keller (COMMUNIA/Open Future) was joined by Felix Reda (Project Lead © Control at GFF and former MEP) and Martin Husovec (Assistant Professor of Law at LSE) to discuss the AG Opinion’s implications on the implementation of the CDSM directive across Europe. The Salon was moderated by Teresa Nobre (COMMUNIA).

The post COMMUNIA Salon: Article 17 – Unpacking the AG Opinion in case C-401/19 appeared first on COMMUNIA Association.

To kick off the festivities, we reviewed the 14 policy recommendations that COMMUNIA issued 10 years ago to see what happened to them over the past decade (from 00:03 to 00:21 in the recording). As it turns out a fair number of them have been at least partially – or  even fully – implemented, in many cases thanks to advocacy work that we and our partners have done

For the second part of the event, we brought together three friends from academia who have influenced our work in important ways to reflect on COMMUNIA’s work.

The post COMMUNIA’s 10th Anniversary appeared first on COMMUNIA Association.