In the next year the European Parliament and the European Council will decide what educators can legally do when it comes to using, publishing, and adapting sources that are normally protected by copyright over the course of the next ten years. The legislation that is now being made is the type of legislation that is mandatory for all EU member states to adapt in their national legislation, and therefore will have a big impact on your educational practices. Because everything that is created, unless it is licensed under an open licence, remains in copyright until 70 years after the death of its creator, almost all sources related to teaching and learning history of the twentieth century, are protected by copyright. So, almost all music, paintings, films, documentaries, press photographs, and other types of sources you are not allow to use, unless there is copyright exception for education.

The good news, is that the new legislation includes a European wide exception that is mandatory for education. But the bad news is that this exception in its current form, only allows for the use of parts of the source (image using only a part of painting), only for the time that is needed for the learning of the student (which is ambiguous), only on online environments of 1 school (which would not allow for online school partnerships), and to make it mandatory for states to pay for the collective licenses. Also, there is an exception on the exception, which means that copyright rules can still be different from country to country, making the legislation unnecessarily complex. EuroClio is working with Communia and the Lifelong Learning Platform to change this legislation for the better, and with this you can help.

You can help us by:

  1. Signing the joint letter (Communia – Joint Letter – Educators ask for a better copyright) in which educators ask for a better copyright on behalf of your institution. You can do so by sending  your official organisation logo before 11 January 2018 via email to education@communia-association.org.
  2. Sharing your experience of copyright by filling in this form. EuroClio and its partners will use these answers to inform Members of Parliament how copyright is affecting educators in practice, and what therefore needs to change.

Thank you very much for your help!