<
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/11/14/copyright-leads-to-internet-fragmentation/>
"The EU Copyright Directive is arguably the most important recent legislation
in the area of intellectual monopolies. It is also a failure, judged purely on
its own terms as an initiative to modernize and unify copyright across the
European Union. Instead, it includes many backward-looking features that go
against the grain of the digital world, which are explored in
Walled Culture
the book (free digital versions available). It has also fragmented digital
copyright law, as EU Member States struggle to implement a badly-drafted and
self-contradictory text. For example, France’s national law went even further
than the Directive in tilting the playing-field in favor of copyright
companies. Germany, by contrast, attempted to produce a more balanced approach,
recognizing the rights of ordinary Internet users. The result is a patchwork of
different laws across the EU – exactly what the Directive was supposed to
eliminate.
A post on the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
(IFLA) Web site points out that this is a global problem, particularly with
regard to copyright exceptions:
while international copyright law is prescriptive about what minimum rights
should be guaranteed, it leaves far more flexibility when it comes to
exceptions, and is silent around cross-border working. As a result, there
are as many sets of copyright exceptions as there are countries in the
world.
The impact of this is just the same sort of uncertainty and caution about
cross-border working as characterises other drivers of internet
fragmentation.
That is, while minimum rights for the copyright industry have been set in stone
globally, rights for everyone else are far from guaranteed, and vary greatly in
different jurisdictions. This has practical consequences for key institutions,
as the IFLA post explains:
Variance in copyright exceptions not only holds back librarians, as well as
archivists and museum workers from cooperating across borders, for example
in the context of research collaborations or online and distance learning,
but can also be a driver of inequality. If researchers are expected to
travel to access a unique source or collection, only the wealthiest are
likely to be able to do this.
The result is just another example of internet fragmentation, and a
particularly serious one in that it most directly affects key wider drivers
of sustainability – education, research and cultural participation.
The IFLA post goes on to offer an example of how that fragmentation has been
overcome in the past."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
