92 righe
4.6 KiB
HTML
92 righe
4.6 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html newsdate="2016-09-28">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>EU copyright proposal reinforces DRM</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>EU copyright proposal reinforces DRM</h1>
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<p>On 14 September the European Commission (EC) published
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its long-awaited <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/proposal-directive-european-parliament-and-council-copyright-digital-single-market">proposal
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for a Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market</a>. While we
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welcome the proposal to introduce a mandatory exception for 'text
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and data mining' (TDM) in the field of scientific research, we are concerned
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about the inclusion of a far-reaching "technical safeguards" clause granted
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to rightholders in order to limit the newly established exception.</p>
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<p>The proposal grants a mandatory exception to research organisations to
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carry out TDM of copyrighted works to which they have lawful access. The
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exception is only applicable to research organisations, thus narrowing
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its scope and excluding everyone else with the lawful access to the copyrighted
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works.</p>
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<p>According to the accompanying Impact Assessment, the TDM exception has
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the potential of inflicting a high number of downloads of the works, and
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that is why the rightholders are allowed to apply "necessary" technical
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measures in the name of "security and integrity" of their networks and
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databases.</p>
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<p>Such a requirement, as it is proposed by the EC in the current text,
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gives rightholders a wide-reaching right to restrict the effective implementation
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of the new exception. Rightholders are free to apply whichever measure
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they deem "necessary" to protect their rights in the TDM exception, and
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to choose the format and modalities of such technical measures.</p>
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<p>This provision will lead to a wider implementation of
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<a href="/activities/drm/index.html">"digital restrictions
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management"</a> (DRM) technologies. These technologies are already used
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extensively to arbitrarily restrict the lawful use of accessible works
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under the new TDM exception. This reference to "necessary technical safeguards"
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is excessive and can make the mandatory TDM exception useless. It is worth
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repeating that the exception is already heavily limited to cover only research
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organisations with public interest.</p>
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<p>Further reasons to forbid the use of DRM technologies in the exception are:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>DRM leads to vendor lock-in.</strong> As researchers will
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need a specific compatible software in order to be able to access the work,
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they will be locked to a particular vendor or provider for arbitrary reasons.
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These technical safeguards will most likely stop researchers from exercising
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their right under the exception of using their own tools to extract data,
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and can lead to the factual monopoly of a handful of companies providing
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these technologies.</li>
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<li><strong>DRM excludes free software users.</strong> DRM always relies
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on proprietary components to work. These components, by definition, are
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impossible to implement in Free Software. The right of Free Software users
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to access resources under the exception will be violated.</li>
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<li><strong>DRM technologies increase the cost of research and education.</strong>
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Accessing DRM-protected resources typically requires purchasing specific
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proprietary software. Such technology is expensive and it is important to
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ask how much the implementation of these technologies would cost for research
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and educational institutions throughout Europe. Furthermore, very often
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this software cannot be shared, so every research workstation would need
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to purchase a separate copy or license for the software.</li>
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<li><strong>DRM artificially limits sharing between peers.</strong>
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A typical functionality DRM provides is to cap the number of copies you
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can make of documents and data. This will force different researchers to
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access and download data and documents several times even if they are
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working on the same team. This is a waste of time and resources. As DRM
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also typically limits the number of downloads, teams could find themselves
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cut of from resources they legitimately have a right to access under the
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exception.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>We ask the European Parliament and the EU member states to explicitly
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forbid the use of harmful DRM practices in the EU copyright reform,
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especially with regard to already heavily limited exceptions.</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="front-page"/>
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<tag key="copyright">Copyright</tag>
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<tag key="drm">DRM</tag>
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<tag key="digital-single-market">Digital Single Market</tag>
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</tags>
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</html>
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