Communia -

3rd COMMUNIA Workshop in Amsterdam

Bernardo Parrella — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:24:51 +0200

The 3rd COMMUNIA Workshop (Marking the public domain: relinquishment & certification) is planned in Amsterdam for 20-21 October 2008. The workshop will address the legal, economical and technical issues related to certifying public domain works and relinquishing intellectual property rights in Europe. Hereafter you can find the workshop program, but...please book your hotel as soon as possible!

IP: the Commission’s “Forward Looking Package” is not the solution

Bernardo Parrella — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:03:13 +0200

BEUC, the European Consumers’ Organisation, addressed the recent EU proposal to extend copyright protection from 50 to 95 years not only for music performers but also to record producers: "long terms of protection are counter-productive and a burden to innovation".

Policy and Technology for e-Science

Bernardo Parrella — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:28:13 +0200

Science Commons, SPARC, the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, and the Institut d'Estudis Catalans are organizing a satellite event on the policies and technologies necessary to make good on the promise of scientific research in the networked era.

COMMUNIA Network People: here we are!

Bernardo Parrella — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:29:45 +0200

A wonderful picture of the wonderful people attending the COMMUNIA Conference in Louvain-la-Neuve

The Commons: public photos with "no known copyright restrictions"

Bernardo Parrella — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:08:01 +0200

The Commons, a pilot project launched last January based on the principle of "no known copyright restrictions", is gaining a very positive response. This partnership involving The Library of Congress and Flickr has two main goals: to increase access to publicly-held photography collections, and to provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge.

Out of some 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials at the Library of Congress, more than 3,000 photos are being made available on the new Flickr page, to include only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist.

Sound Copyright: Term Extension "will damage Commission's reputation"

Bernardo Parrella — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:18:11 +0200

Last week the leading European centres for intellectual property research have released a joint letter to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, enclosing an impact assessment detailing the far reaching and negative effects of the proposal to extend the term of copyright in sound recordings.

COMMUNIA conference on Public Domain in the Digital Age

Maria Jose Iglesias Portella — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:23:36 +0100

The First COMMUNIA Conference 2008 is scheduled for Monday 30 June and Tuesday 1st July 2008 in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (30 km south of Brussels). It is co-organized by the Communia Thematic Network and the GICSI-EU initiative.

The main theme is the Assessment of economic and social impact of digital public domain throughout Europe.

The Conference aims at initiating a “stock taking exercise” of the impact of public domain initiatives in the fields of public sector information, libraries, archives, scientific research and creative works in Europe. The event is mainly aimed at promoting the public domain by building capacity for scientific assessment of social and economic impacts, and promoting analysis of legal impediments. The conference will draw upon the extensive information on open access practices that is available, although often in an informal manner, within major networks and stakeholders in Europe.

First COMMUNIA Workshop: a small big success

Bernardo Parrella — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:20:13 +0100

The COMMUNIA workshop in Torino was a small big success. First, in terms of participation: more than 100 attendees from many EU countries, and even someone from overseas, filled up the Politecnico's Aula Magna for the entire day. But it was also a great occasion for sharing ideas and fire up the discussion, with high quality presentations, stimulating comments, and good humour as well.

Here is the download page for the various presentations, papers and slides, while below we put together a short report.

A big thank you to everybody for making this event a success!