More than 60 library, archive and research institutions including the Australian Libraries Copyright Committe, the Australian Libraries and Information Association and National and State Libraries Australasia, representing over650,000 information professionals, have joined together in a letter asking the European Union to engage constructively in text-based discussions at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on copyright exceptions for libraries and archives. 

Organisations from Spain, France, Poland, Italy, Slovakia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Armenia, Bulgaria, Russia and Sweden, as well as Australia, Canada and Colombia, have joined with European and international library and archive associations highlighting the copyright challenges preventing international research collaboration, preservation of cultural heritage and new forms of innovation.

The signatories of the letter urge the European Union and its Member States to ensure that text-based discussion of an international instrument on copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives continues to be reflected in the mandate of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (SCCR), and that the European Union engages constructively in these discussions. At the last meeting of the SCCR, the European Union tried to reverse conclusions that had been previously agreed by all of the world’s countries at WIPO.

The discussions at WIPO are important to:

• Foster a cutting-edge, open international research culture
• Ensure future researchers have access to Europe’s digitized and born-digital heritage; and
• Make European cultural heritage globally accessible

The full letter is available here