C4C is proud to welcome two new members. On March 14, the Coalition for a Digital Economy ( Coadec) and the Warsaw-based Centrum Cyfrowe both signed on to our mission of sensible copyright policy in service of creativity, innovation, education, competitiveness and access to culture.

Founded in 2010 by a group of entrepreneurs and others active in the startup world, Coadec is dedicated to highlighting the success of the digital innovation community through policy debates, events, white papers and other activities.”Coadec are delighted to add our signature to the C4C declaration”, said Sara Kelly, the Executive Director of Coadec. “The purpose of Intellectual Property protection is, as it was first envisioned, to foster innovation, but many aspects of the current copyright regime have the opposite effect when it comes to innovation by digital businesses and is all too often used to punish consumers and restrict usage, which significantly hinders growth and innovation.”Sara further noted that”content creators can profit from their work in many ways, but the structure and enforcement of copyright law must balance the needs of creative innovators with those of digital innovators. Changes in copyright that bring certainty and flexibility in the use of copyrighted material, and encourage creators to work with innovators, have been shown to attract investment and increase revenues for the whole creative ecosystem.”

The Centrum Cyfrowe, on the other hand, is a “think and do tank” dedicated to building a better digital society in Poland through open government and open culture. Alek Tarkowski, the director of Centrum Cyfrowe, made the following statement when signing the C4C declaration:”In the wake of last-year’s ACTA events, we face in Europe a clear need of reforming the copyright system, with greater flexibility and balance of varied interest in mind. Centrum Cyfrowe has been working both on promoting voluntary copyright models for sharing and a copyright reform geared towards balance and flexibility. We support the C4C coalition, seeing it as an important voice calling for copyright reform in Europe.”C4C welcomes our new members and values their participation at this pivotal point in the digital economy’s evolution in Europe.