EU Copyright plans could harm scientific research, warns ESF
The European Science Foundation has warned that current plans for new European Union (EU) copyright laws, if left unchanged, could harm the international competitiveness of European research. The European Commission's draft Directive harmonising aspects of copyright will shortly be debated by the EU Council of Ministers. The ESF is calling for changes to be made to the wording of one of the Directive's key articles which deals with "exceptions" to the proposed laws to ensure that it does not cause legal and financial headaches for Europe's researchers. The ESF expressed its support for the Commission's objectives of improving the protection of intellectual property as technological developments make it ever easier for pirates to duplicate and distribute copyright material. But it warned that this should not be at the expense of Europe's ability to carry out research. The ESF has recommended that a clause be added to the Directive allowing for the inclusion of all current "exceptions" set out in national legislation. Other suggested revisions include the need to ensure that "scientific research" is interpreted in a broad sense, with research in the humanities and arts being explicitly included. In addition, the ESF has suggested that the current reference to "non-commercial" research could cause confusion, as it would be very difficult to differentiate between commercial and non-commercial research in most academic settings. To avoid this, it has recommended the introduction of a "public good" definition of research, which could form an 'exception' to the Directive.