Copyright Reform Summer break – time to issue a joint statement

• further harmonisation of exceptions and limitations related to libraries, education and research,
• a clear exception for text and data mining and  
• greater protection for library users’ rights against technological measures or contract terms that otherwise restrict them.

EBLIDA Answer to the Public Consultation on Ancillary rights and Freedom of Panorama

On 13 June, EBLIDA has responded to the European Commission public consultation on the role of publishers in the copyright value chain and panorama exception.
In the first part of the consultation, EBLIDA advised against the creation of any new neighbouring right as highlighted here: (…) “In summary, existing copyright provisions do more than enough to protect publishers/news publishers. An “ancillary right” in hyperlinks and snippets is simply not needed. On the contrary, as has been clearly shown with regard to the Spanish ancillary right for news publishers, publishers need the services of search engines, news aggregators and library information services to their users, using both hyperlinks and snippets to point to third party online content and drive customers to their websites. The online world is a Hydra; an EU-wide ancillary right would chill European search and other aggregation services, so they would offer less EU content and more non-EU content (to the benefit of international and non-EU publishers), or, as the Google News service did in Spain, will simply leave the scene to the detriment of Spanish citizens access to the full range of online news”.
 
In the second part of the consultation on Freedom of Panorama, EBLIDA advised on the importance of an EU-wide Freedom of Panorama exception, as such an exception already exists in 15 EU countries. It stated the importance of also examining the “(…) inclusion of certain types of two-dimensional works located in exterior public places, not only works of artistic craftsmanship on buildings (in this case decorative arts) but also murals and graffiti (…)”.
 
This consultation is another step in the direction of the upcoming copyright proposals to be launched by the Commission this Autumn.
 
The full EBLIDA answer was communicated to all EBLIDA members to help them respond to the consultation.
 
The EU Commission should have received 5000+ answers.
 
You can also read the blog post of C4C for more information at http://bit.ly/1Yx5JM9

The new role of public libraries – A CULT Committee workshop in the European Parliament

20 June 2016, Brussels  

This was a really successful event in the European Parliament that welcomed about 80 participants, with a good representation of MEPs and their assistants.
 
EBLIDA Vice-President Barbara Lison made a very good presentation of the new roles of public libraries through 5 key aspects:

1. Challenges, risks and opportunities;
2. Public libraries are important gateways to knowledge and inclusion;
3. Libraries are central cultural and public spaces;
4. Libraries are anchors for the high-street;
5. Recommendations.

• Recognising public libraries as key actors in education, digitisation and integration into policy strategies at EU and national level;
• Creating a fund or programme for the innovation in public libraries;
• Establish a sustainable European network of public libraries;
• Creating a European (Public) Library Label, or (Public) Library of Europe;
• Supporting data collection on European public libraries.

Frank Huysmans, Professor of Library Science, University of Amsterdam talked the audience through promoting media and information literacy in libraries. It was an interesting presentation focussing mainly on digital literacy and how libraries help citizens to acquire and use new skills.
 
The last speaker was Dan Mount, Digital and Internet policy specialist who presented E-lending: challenges and opportunities. Most of you probably know Dan from his report A review of Public Libraries e-lending models.
 
There were a lot of interesting questions and/or remarks from MEPs who are overall convinced of the important roles libraries have in society and look interested to support.

To be continued.

BREXIT

Further to the result of the referendum held in the United Kingdom Thursday 23^rd June 2016  to decide whether the UK will stay in or leave the European Union in the next couple of years, EBLIDA issued a press release entitled Our Common Future on 5 July 2016 showing solidarity and support to  British colleagues and our intention to continue to work together.
 
Read the press release below and online at: http://www.eblida.org/news/brexit.html

EBLIDA is an organisation that embodies trans-national cooperation for the public good of all Europeans.

EBLIDA’s membership achieves this by harnessing the skills, expertise and aspirations of Europe’s professional library organisations and institutions, their members and staff, that regardless of nationality, are united by strong common professional values.

In light of the result of the UK Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016, EBLIDA intends to strongly support the British library community during the years ahead.
 
We believe that during this period, the best way for British library and information organisations and institutions to protect their potential interests in Brussels is through membership of pan-European library and information organisations such as EBLIDA, since the UK may decide to take a path that leads to remaining in the EEA or striking an agreement with the EU that gives it enhanced access to the EU Internal Market, whereby relevant EU law may in future still continue to apply to many UK library and information activities, especially in the digital environment. 
 
EBLIDA pledges to continue to represent the interests of all its members in its advocacy with the EU institutions, including its British members who now find themselves in the unprecedented situation of having in political terms suddenly lost their own direct voices in Brussels while the UK continues in EU membership and pending the outcome of the UK's negotiations on the nature of its future relationship with the EU. 
 
We stand ready to help our British colleagues now and in future and will not give up fighting for them in Europe in relation to:

• copyright and other information law
• education, research and culture
• cross-border access to information and knowledge
• development of libraries, literacy and a reading culture
• information literacy and other skills training for citizens
• global exceptions and limitations at WIPO

Finally, we won’t give up on you because we know that for all those campaigns, whether within or outside of the EU, you will, as always, stand by your colleagues throughout the rest of Europe.

EBLIDA Director at the French Librarian Congress, 9 to 11 June, Clermont-Ferrand (France)

• Mobility and new proximities: Services and content in the pocket. Where I want, when I want.
• Affirming (asserting) peer to peer: Doing it by ourselves and with others. Sharing.
• Automation of services: From self-service to drive-in.
• Dematerialisation: the end of physical material ?

EBLIDA Director at the Copyright round table in the Impact Hub, Bucharest, Romania – 29 June

At the invitation of Ioana Crihana, Executive Director of the ANBPR, a new EBLIDA member, EBLIDA Director, Vincent Bonnet participated at a 3,5 hour round table of discussion on copyright issues at the Impact Hub in Bucharest.
 
The event moderated by Bogdan Manolea (ApTI) featured several speakers from Romanian organisations, such as Dragos-Adrian Neagu, ANBPR President, Nicolae Constantinescu, Information Architect kosson.ro and Andrei Cipu, Wikipedia.

Media Literacy Conference in Riga, 27-29 June

EBLIDA was present at the  2^nd Media and Literacy Conference in Riga Latvia held from 27 to 29 June.
 
Jukka Relander, EBLIDA President, participated at the Plenary Session 2 on the topic Bridging Concept and Practice: Mediators of MIL at the Local Level (The Role of Libraries and Media Networks
as Mediators in Promoting MIL (The Case of Latvia) and Other Target Groups (Parents, Teachers, Industries)) moderated by Xavier Landes, Expert in Media Ethics, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen; Visiting lecturer at Stradins University.

Leena Toivonen from the EBLIDA Literacies Expert Group participated at the Round table 3 on the topic Libraries, Information and MIL: The New Strategie.

The round table was moderated by Uldis Zarins (a member of the EBLIDA Executive Committee) here in his capacity as Director of Development, National Library of Latvia.
 
For more details about the conference content  please check the detailed programme.
 
The MIL Conference should lead to the release of Riga Recommendations on Media and Information Literacy in Shifting Media and Information Landscape. This would reaffirm earlier recognition of the importance of the topic based on previous recommendations and calls on the Internet, UN member states as well as civil society and on UNESCO to work jointly to achieve a true media and information literate society.

A draft is under discussion.

To be continued.

Opinion of the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union on e-lending

The Advocate General considers that the EU legislature did not contemplate the inclusion of the lending of electronic books within the directive’s concept of ‘lending’ because the technology relating to commercially viable electronic books was at that time only in its infancy.
 
He thus suggests that a ‘dynamic’ or ‘evolving’ interpretation of the directive should be applied, arguing, inter alia, that the lending of electronic books is the modern equivalent of the lending of printed books.

According to the Advocate General, such an interpretation alone will be capable of ensuring the effectiveness of the legislation in question in a sector experiencing rapid technological and economic development.
 
The Advocate General also points out that the main purpose of copyright is to protect the interests of authors. At present, libraries do indeed lend books in electronic form under licensing agreements concluded between libraries and publishers, which is principally of benefit to publishers or other intermediaries in the electronic book trade, whereas no adequate remuneration is received by authors.
 
If, by contrast, digital lending were regarded as coming within the scope of the directive, authors would as a result receive fair remuneration, in addition to that generated by the sale of books and independently of agreements concluded with publishers.
 
The Advocate General also concludes that an interpretation of the concept of lending which includes the lending of electronic books is contrary to neither the objective nor the wording of the directive.
 
Moreover, such an interpretation is in no way incompatible or inconsistent with the various provisions of EU law in the field of copyright or with the EU’s international obligations.
 
Lastly, the Advocate General expresses the view that, when introducing the exception for the public lending of electronic books, Member States may require that those books should first have been made available to the public by the rightholder or with his consent and that they are obtained from lawful sources.
 
By contrast, according to the Advocate General, the mechanism of exhaustion of the distribution right bears no relation to the lending right”.
 
The full text of the Advocate General’s Opinion is available here: https://tinyurl.com/h4va9az in all EU official languages.