As part of a large coalition we have co-signed two open letters addressed to the European Commission as well as the European Parliament informing them about our concerns regarding the Commission's approach on copyright affairs.

The Commission's ongoing public consultation on online platforms includes important and new questions on copyright. Nevertheless, the Commission plans on adopting its Communication on Copyright on 9th December already which is before the consultation has ended. Moreover, certain questions are only open to right holders to answer. That is why we urge the Commission to wait for the end of the consultation process and to open up the catalogue for all EU citizens.

Furthermore, we urge the European Parliament to uphold its position from July 2015 when the majority rejected the introduction of an ancillary copyright for press publishers by adopting the Reda Report.

The signatories come from all over Europe and represent not only Internet users but also journalists, libraries, ISPs, news publishers and the civil society as a whole (e.g. Communia, EDRi).

Update 01.12.2015:

German MEP Petra Kammerevert (S&D/SPD) thanks us and strongly supports the open letters. Last week, she wrote her own letter to  Commissioners Timmermans, Ansip and Oettinger (German). She particularly agrees with us that it is inappropriate to limit answers to rightsholders. She then offers us to send her our answers to these specific questions and suggests to send them to the Commission anyway. Furthermore, she supports the fact that impact assessments should be published before any legislative act. Lastly, Kammerevert shares our view that the Commission intends to implement an European Ancillary Copyright for Press Publishers and argues why the whole idea of such a right should be dropped. 

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