On February 11th, a cross-party group of European Parliament members and their staff, members of the UK House of Lords and Commons and their staff, UK government representation and representatives of industry, libraries and research institutions, and world-renowned musical performers and composers met at the British Library to discuss the future of copyright in Europe.
The participants were taken on a VIP tour of the British Library, where they saw some of the great treasures of the library, from the earliest complete text of the Bible, unique recordings of music from the early 20th century, the “Book of Hours” owned by Anne Boleyn with written annotation from herself and King Henry VIII, as well as the system by which any item in the library collection can be located and sent to a library patron in short order.
After the tour a roundtable discussion took place with three presentations, focusing on the practical effect of current European copyright in three areas. You can click each subject to see a PDF of the presentation that was made:
- Preservation of copyrighted material by libraries and archives;
- Distance learning programmes that take place across multiple European countries;
- Creating compound works from copyrighted materials from multiple countries that are then to be made available in multiple countries.
The participants were vocal in complimenting the event for a focus on practical application of copyright law. MEPs and MPs were united in stating that this kind of practical discussion was largely missing from current discussions of copyright at the European level, and asked for C4C to host their next event in Brussels, and again focused on the practical.
Stay tuned for the next C4C event – this time in Brussels!