Monday, July 13, 2015

Blog post: EU parliament defends Freedom of Panorama & calls for copyright reform

Julia Reda has been lobbying for specific reforms to the copyright laws in the European Union.  On her blog last week, she announced a victory in terms of the "Freedom of Panorama, which allows anyone to publish photographs, documentary films and other works depicting public places without restriction." She noted that the ability for someone to take a photo with a building in the background and then post that photo online runs into copyright concerns that are not easily for a person to navigate.  Lifting the restrictions made sense to her. Thankfully, it also made sense to the EU.

Reda also noted that:
14-07-01-Julia-Reda-by-RalfR-02Reforming exceptions to copyright protection must be at the center of [Commissioner Oettinger] initiative, since they fulfil such an essential, multi-facetted role: They provide creatives with the space to create new works, users with legal certainty for everyday activities, and access to culture and knowledge to everyone.
Reda is a proponent of copyright reform and as a member of the European Parliament, she's working hard to get it done.  I wish her the best...and hope that she might also influence copyright reform in North America!

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