*Green Paper on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy*
In its review of the Single Market, the Commission highlighted the need
to promote free movement of knowledge and innovation as the "Fifth
freedom" in the single market. The Green Paper will now focus on how
research, science and educational materials are disseminated to the
public and whether knowledge is circulating freely in the internal
market. The consultation document will also look at the issue of whether
the current copyright framework is sufficiently robust to protect
knowledge products and whether authors and publishers are sufficiently
encouraged to create and disseminate electronic versions of these products.
This consultation is targeted at everyone who wants to advance their
knowledge and educational levels by using the Internet. Wide
dissemination of knowledge contributes to more inclusive and cohesive
societies, fosters equal opportunities in line with the priorities of
the renewed Social Agenda.
With this Green Paper, the Commission plans to have a structured debate
on the long-term future of copyright policy in the knowledge intensive
areas. In particular, the Green Paper is an attempt to structure the
copyright debate as it relates to scientific publishing, the digital
preservation of Europe's cultural heritage, orphan works, consumer
access to protected works and the special needs for the disabled to
participate in the information society. The Green Paper points to future
challenges in the fields of scientific and scholarly publishing, search
engines and special derogations for libraries, researchers and disabled
people.
The Green paper focuses not only on the dissemination of knowledge for
research, science and education but also on the current legal framework
in the area of copyright and the possibilities it can currently offer to
a variety of users (social institutions, museums, search engines,
disabled people, teaching establishments).
The Green Paper is available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/docs/copyright-infso/greenpaper_en.pdfEGIP Archive:
http://www.ec-gis.org/egip/
