You Can Fix Copyright
The Modern Poland Foundation is taking part in the ongoing public consultations regarding the copyright system announced by the European Commission.
They last till February 5, 2014 which leaves citizens of the European Union only 2 weeks to express their opinion on such copyright-related topics as: should linking and browsing be legal? do we have the right to download files? can we have full access to library collections online? how should authors be remunerated for their work? what are the limits of fair use? should terms of copyright protection be shorter? and many others.
The broad coalition of organizations led by C4C, with the Modern Poland Foundation as one of its members, prepared an online tool making it easier for people to go through the complicated process of the consultations. The website is also connected with the platform for polish speaking users prepared by the Modern Poland Foundation.
The Polish platform gives the possibility to participate in the consultations in three different ways:
- by answering just the open question no. 80;
- by answering 12 most important questions (selection and guidance by Modern Poland);
- by answering all questions posed by the European Commission.
The last possibility is supported by the FixCopyright guide”:http://youcan.fixcopyright.eu/” which helps:
1. select questions that are most suitable to the users’s interests and comunication habits. It is a kind of filter for those who do not have time to go through all of the 80 questions.
2. obtain explanations of what the Commission is really asking about.
We can read on the C4C website that: „Yet copyright is not a matter that should be looked at by specialists only: it pervades our life and society, affects citizens’ fundamental freedoms such as privacy, free expression, access to knowledge and more generally the creativity and innovation potential of Europe”.
