EARE welcomes new coalition members Research Libraries UK, SCONUL and UCL Library Services

EARE is delighted to welcome Research Libraries UK, SCONUL (Society of College, National and University Libraries) and UCL Library Services in its coalition today. The three organisations are among the members of Copyright for Knowledge, a cross-sectoral body which aims to work with governments at both a UK and European level to achieve a balanced copyright regime in Europe. They decided to join EARE to  strengthen the voices calling for Text and Data Mining to be available to any person with legal access to the materials, so that it can live up to its full potential.

The coalition, which is supported by BSA | The Software Alliance (“BSA”) and Allied for Startups, brings together a wide range of sectors and communities that want the EU to live up to its innovation potential in the digital economy. The coalition therefore calls on the EU to include a full TDM exception in its current copyright reform. This is needed to enable successful research, which is often the result of effective public-private partnerships.

“Many successful companies were born in universities, then commercialised their ideas as startups and further grew as businesses. This is why we continue to support the view that TDM should be available to all so as to maintain this seamless transfer of knowledge between the research and the business communities”, said Lenard Koschwitz from Allied for Startups. “We are delighted to see that we are receiving more support from research libraries, which are essential to help us increase the EU’s knowledge leadership”.

“Having Research Libraries UK, SCONUL and UCL Library Services join EARE is a testament to the diversity of stakeholders and organisations that are calling on EU policy-makers to ensure that the benefits of TDM are available to all, from researchers and libraries to entrepreneurs and individuals”, said Thomas Boué, BSA’s Director General, Policy – EMEA. “Considering the important vote in the IMCO Committee today, we hope that Members of the European Parliament will decide to support amendments which do not jeopardize the future of European research and innovation”.

Read the statement from Research Libraries UK, SCONUL and UCL Library Services here

For questions please contact:

Mathilde Bouvier – eare@apcoworldwide.com – www.eare.eu  – +32 473 68 0107