The Right to Read is the Right to Mine

19.10.2015

Today, during a breakfast briefing at the European Parliament hosted by MEP Julia Reda, the League of European Research Universities (LERU) presented what universities need from the upcoming EU copyright reform.

A timely event, after the watered-down EP report on the implementation of the “InfoSoc Directive” (Directive 2001/29/EC) that was adopted in June 2015 by the European Parliament.

In view of the upcoming EU copyright reform, LERU calls upon policymakers to adopt a serious and ambitious position that strongly supports research and education. According to Prof Kurt Deketelaere, Secretary-General LERU, "this position should at least include :

a mandatory exception for research and education purposes;
a mandatory exception that will enable users to text and data mine all content to which they have legal access : the right to read is the right to mine".

The current fragmented and obsolete EU copyright regime is clearly not a helpful tool for the realisation of the European Research Area, according to LERU.

The recent Implementation Assessment on the Review of the EU copyright framework adds to the list of evidence supporting LERU´s claims. The study refers to “a fragmented EU copyright regime” in which the failure to implement a consistent set of copyright exceptions and limitations “create inefficiencies, in particular, in the fields of education and research”, and “potentially impinge on the creation of a truly integrated European Research Area”. The study acknowledges that European researchers may be falling behind and that is at least partly the result of Europe´s laws. It also identifies the absence of legal certainly to support the development of text and data mining as “a key gap in urgent need for addressing.”

LERU´s commitment to further advance knowledge and to strive for the adequate framework conditions to enable it, have also resulted in the recent signing of the The Hague Declaration and the launch of the LERU statement “Moving Forwards on Open Access”.

For a detailed overview of LERU's position on the EU copyright reform, please read our statement "The right to read is the right to mine".