Over 80 organisations representing a broad spectrum of stakeholders join forces to warn Member states and EU Institutions that the discussion around the Copyright Directive are on the verge of causing irreparable damage.

The signatories warn the Member states that the discussion around the Copyright Directive are on the verge of causing irreparable damage to our fundamental rights and freedoms, our economy and competitiveness, our education and research, our innovation and competition, our creativity and our culture.

To show the substance behind that sentence, the letter refers in annex to 29 letters and analyses sent previously by various European stakeholders and experts for more details (see some of the statements below), and which notably emphasise the negative impact of the copyright overhaul proposed notably in Articles 13 (monitoring and censoring of user uploads), 11 (press publishers’ rights, aka ancillary copyright) and, 3 (text and data mining), 4 (education), 5 (cultural heritage preservation) and 7 to 9 (out-of-commerce works).

The open letter signatories represent:

• European and global organisations, as well as national organisations from across 16 EU Member States;
• over 40 human, privacy, civil rights and media freedom organisations;
• almost 70.000 libraries across Europe and about 100 million European library users;
• 1000’s of startups across Europe;
• more than 850 higher education institutions in 47 countries (including all EU Member States);
• 100’s of Internet service providers and hosting companies across Europe that serve millions of users;
• and many others.

And we are one of the signatories!