C4C is coordinating our research institutions, libraries and other industry members to participate in the European Commission’s “Licensing Europe” initiative that is now progressing to the stakeholder dialogue phase.

It is important to ensure C4C stakeholders are represented in the discussions; the Commission has noted a particular need for more research institutions to weigh in on the issue of text and data mining. That issue is one of four focus areas that also include cross-border access and portability of services; cultural heritage and audiovisual materials; and user-generated content and small-scale use of protected material.

As detailed in a December 18 press release, the EU is convening separate working groups for each of these four focus areas, and C4C has already begun reaching out to our members to get them involved in the sessions. This is particularly important given the structure of the talks, which might otherwise disproportionately favour large stakeholders with a permanent policy presence in Brussels.

With a goal of identifying “effective market-led solutions” and the “possible need for public policy action,” the working groups are expected to meet in Brussels monthly for day-long sessions; the plan is to deliver an initial report in June and a final report before the end of 2013. As we noted in a previous blog post in late November, C4C sent a letter to the college of European Commissioners arguing on behalf of our constituents that the Commissioners take a flexible and sensible approach to copyright.