Over 80 organisations representing a broad spectrum of stakeholders join forces to warn Member states and EU Institutions that the discussion around the Copyright Directive are on the verge of causing irreparable damage

On 30 November, over 80 organisations (see the full list below) sent this open letter [PDF] to the Ministers attending the Competitiveness Council and the EU institutions. This is the 1st time that such a broad spectrum of organisations – representing human and digital rights, media freedom, publishers, journalists, libraries, scientific and research institutions, educational institutions including universities, creator representatives, consumers, software developers, start-ups, technology businesses and Internet service providers – join forces to send a strong signal to the Member States packaged into one sentence.

The signatories warn the Member states that the discussion around the Copyright Directive are on the verge of causing irreparable damage to our fundamental rights and freedoms, our economy and competitiveness, our education and research, our innovation and competition, our creativity and our culture.

To show the substance behind that sentence, the letter refers in annex to 29 letters and analyses sent previously by various European stakeholders and experts for more details (see some of the statements below), and which notably emphasise the negative impact of the copyright overhaul proposed notably in Articles 13 (monitoring and censoring of user uploads), 11 (press publishers’ rights, aka ancillary copyright) and, 3 (text and data mining), 4 (education), 5 (cultural heritage preservation) and 7 to 9 (out-of-commerce works).

“At this stage, all arguments have been set out repeatedly by all affected stakeholder, and this from all possible angles. This letter is a warning that the copyright downwards spiral must be stopped before it is too late”, states Caroline De Cock from Copyright for Creativity.

The open letter signatories represent:

• European and global organisations, as well as national organisations from across 16 EU Member States;
• over 40 human, privacy, civil rights and media freedom organisations;
• almost 70.000 libraries across Europe and about 100 million European library users;
• 1000’s of startups across Europe;
• more than 850 higher education institutions in 47 countries (including all EU Member States);
• 100’s of Internet service providers and hosting companies across Europe that serve millions of users;
• and many others.

Some of the points that were previously brought to the EU legislators’ attention:

“Article 13 (…) is disproportionate and irreconcilable with the fundamental rights guarantees in the Charter [of Fundamental Rights of the EU]” (p. 14) and “contains imbalanced, undefined legal concepts that make it incompatible with the existing acquis” (p. 23).

20 October, 2017 – Recommendation co-signed by over 50 respected academics on measures to safeguard fundamental rights and the open Internet in the framework of the EU copyright reform.

“Article 13 of the proposal on Copyright in the Digital Single Market include obligations on internet companies that would be impossible to respect without the imposition of excessive restrictions on citizens’ fundamental rights.”

16 October, 2017 – Open letter from over 50 NGOs representing human rights and media freedom asking the EU legislators to delete Article 13.

“These filtering algorithms will ultimately decide what material software developers should be allowed to share.”

29 September, 2017 – Open letter launched by the Free Software Foundation Europe and OpenForum Europe to secure the free and open source software ecosystem in the EU copyright review.

“Article 11 will (…) have serious negative effects on the quality of the press, freedom of opinion and freedom of expression of EU citizens.”

25 September, 2017 – Open letter from the coalition of innovative media publishers to Members of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on the introduction of a new neighbouring right under Article 11 of the Copyright Directive.

“(…) ensure that Articles 3 to 9 support new forms of research and education and not work against them.”

6 September, 2017 – Open letter from a group of representatives of European academic, library, education, research and digital rights communities to the Members of the Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee of the European Parliament on how the EU copyright reform threatens Open Access and Open Science.

“We are alarmed that the policies described in the proposed Article 13 of the Commission’s text could cripple the growth of online innovation for startups that already exist, while also preventing new, innovative startups from entering the marketplace.”

5 April, 2017 – Letter from over 20 startups and online services to Members of the European Parliament to raise their raise their serious concerns regarding proposed Article 13.

Open letter signatories

Additional signatories

How you can help to #FixCopyright

• EDRi – Time to stop the #CensorshipMachine: NOW!
• Save The Link
• Save the meme!
• Create Refresh Campaign

What others are saying

• Bits of Freedom (BoF) – (Bijna) niemand wil dat uploadfilter
• CCIA – CCIA, Over 80 Organizations Warn Of Irreparable Damage To Be Caused By Copyright Directive
• COMMUNIA – The copyright reform proposal is a threat to fundamental rights, the economy, education and creativity!
• EBLIDA – We need an educated and diverse Society, with autonomous Citizens who trust the Institutions
• EFF – New European Copyright Enforcement Plans Loom Large Even as Users Revolt Against Filter Proposal
• Justice & Peace – Justice and Peace joins coalition to stop controversial European copyright bill

Press coverage

• World IP Review – Copyright directive talks on verge of causing ‘irreparable damage’