Report From Knowledge Rights 21 (KR21): “Barriers and Enablers for Open Science in Copyright Law”

From KR21:

The study “Barriers and Enablers for Open Science in Copyright Law” lays the groundwork for discussions on the need to align copyright law with Open Science objectives. The study highlights that even the efforts and activities of Open Science, which legally depend on private licences and contracts, are potentially severely hindered by copyright regimes today. Copyright regimes should be better framed to support research and science and rapidly reformed not to hinder Open Science.

Copyright law is a system of legal rules primarily aimed at encouraging the creation of literary and artistic works while achieving a delicate balance between various societal interests.

Open Science represents a modern approach to the scientific process, emphasising collaboration and innovative methods for disseminating knowledge. It enhances access to and promotes the reuse of research results by leveraging digital technologies and other modern tools for collaboration.

The European Union and its Member States have been actively adopting various strategies, policies, action plans, and legal measures to incentivise the development of Open Science.

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The study demonstrates that national differences in copyright law also create challenges for cross border cooperation of researchers in general, including when carrying out work in line with Open Science principles. What is legally permitted in one country may be restricted in another, leading to an uneven landscape that complicates the international dissemination of scientific knowledge and limits the impact of investments in producing open knowledge.

Researchers and scientists have been calling for several decades now for a better legal environment for their research and scientific activities in order to achieve the full potential of science and research for the development of society. Open Science initiatives based on bottom-up approaches, such as institutional policies (which rely on open licenses as a tool to open up research results) and the negotiation of more favourable agreements, can have a mitigating effect, particularly in the absence of a more balanced copyright framework with legally certain, broad, and harmonised research exceptions. Yet this study highlights that even Open Science efforts and activities can be severely hindered by the failure to update copyright law.

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