Knowledge Rights 21 has, as a core part of its work, the mobilisation of strong and sustainable national networks of copyright advocates, delivering the legal and policy reform necessary to achieve 21st century access to research, education and culture.
To support this, we have national coordinators across Europe, leading and supporting these networks to deliver, in the following countries. Meet them below:
Bulgaria, Czechia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and the Western Balkans, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom
Bulgaria – Digital Republic (Ana Lazarova)
Ana is a practicing lawyer and a lecturer in Intellectual Property law at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Bulgaria. She is involved in digital rights advocacy as part of the Bulgarian association Digital Republic and in recent years has been working on copyright policies in connection to EU copyright reform and its implementation at the national level. Ana is part of the Creative Commons Global Network and Europeana’s Copyright Community Steering Group. She is actively contributing to several projects for the mapping of copyright exceptions and limitations across the EU, including Communia’s www.copyrightexceptions.eu. Contact Ana
Czechia – Milan Holecek
Milan is originally from Prague, Czech Republic. Milan studied law at Charles University, passed the bar exams and has been practicing law for over 15 years, focusing on corporate, commercial and copyright law. In recent years, he has been dealing with copyright aspects of software development and distribution as part of his own law practice.
Advocacy on a different level, in the form of all-round advocacy and promotion of free licenses, comprises Milan’s activities within Wikimedia Czech Republic. In this connection, he actively promotes free access to knowledge via network of GLAM institutions, friendly NGOs, policy and decision makers. Contact Milan.
Greece – Georgios Glossiotis
Georgios holds a degree from the Department of Librarianship (Technological and Educational Institute of Athens) and a Post-graduate Diploma in It and Management. He currently works for the Organisation for Mediation and Arbitration as Head of the Library and of the IT department. He is a member of the Association of Greek Librarians and Information Scientists since 2000, and has served it from many positions as General Secretary of the Executive Council, Vice President and President. He was elected to the Executive Council of EBLIDA and the Standing Committee of IFLA’s Management of Library Associations Section. Currently, he is a member of the IFLA’s Regional Division Committee Europe. He was a member of various institutional committees for libraries and book policy of the Greek Government with focus on PLR and copyright legislations. Contact Georgios
Ireland – Martin Bradley
Martin is a qualified archivist and director of Archives Ireland, a specialised provider of outsourced archives services. Archives Ireland provides consultancy and staffing for projects including cataloguing, digitisation and exhibitions. Martin has over 25 years’ experience delivering major projects across archives, libraries, museums and universities; as well as with arts organisation such as theatres, media companies and recording artists; government and state bodies; banks and law firms.
Martin has worked on many large scale digitisation projects involving significant copyright management aspects, including the digitisation of the archives of the Abbey and Gate Theatres, as well as work on Beyond 2022.
He is a practising barrister with a focus on Art & Cultural Heritage Law, GDPR and Copyright with a particular interest in legislative review and drafting. Contact Martin
Italy – Deborah de Angelis
Deborah is an attorney-at-law expert in international copyright law, cultural heritage, entertainment law and new technologies. She carries out teaching and training activities, organises numerous conferences and events in the fields of her experience, and authored several publications. She is the lead of the Creative Commons Italian Chapter and representative to the CC Global Network. She worked as a legal advisor on copyright law to the previous Italian Minister of Culture from 2019-2020. She is a fellow of the NEXA Center for the Internet & Society and a member of the “Digital Cultural Heritage” group (ICOM Italy). Deborah is part of the Copyright Law and Access to Knowledge Policies Group (CLAKP) within IGSG-CNR, a working group of experts with a strong focus on copyright law and legal issues affecting the digital environment, which will collaborate with her in achieving the goals of the KR21 programme. Contact Deborah
Latvia – Jurgis Ivans
Jurgis studied Law at the University of Latvia. His professional career is based on a strong knowledge of legal and copyright issues in libraries. Since 2014 he has been employed at the National Library of Latvia, commencing by working as a Project Manager in the Digital Library Sector (Department of Technologies), and helping with copyright management of library and digital collections. From 2018 he has worked as a Senior Legal advisor to the Ministry of Culture – copyright division. In 2020, he was appointed as a Copyright Expert under the Department of Library Development. One of his passions is teaching – for many years he has been a teacher of intellectual property rights within cultural heritage institutions. Contact Jurgis
Moldova – Mariana Harjevschi
Mariana Harjevschi, PhD, joined the “B.P. Hasdeu” Municipal Library in 1997, after graduating librarianship at the LIS at State University from Moldova. Following her passion for library management, she managed to open in 2001, through a project supported by the Soros Foundation-Moldova, the first public library specialized in jurisprudence – the Public Law Library. In 2012, she was elected as the president of the Librarian’s Association from Moldova and continued to serve for a second mandate until 2019.
In 2003, Mariana Harjevschi was nominated by the Electronic Resources for Moldova (REM) Consortium to serve as the EIFL Copyright Coordinator for Moldova. Today, with much perseverance and ambition, she is the director of “B.P. Hasdeu” Municipal Library and wants to transfer many of the projects, initiatives and good practices found in various library visits in the United States of America, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, etc. at home. Courage, she always says, when she has a busy agenda. Contact Mariana
Netherlands – IP Squared (Maarten Zeinstra)
Maarten Zeinstra LL.M. M.Sc. is an intellectual property lawyer (jurist) and information professional. With his one-man consultancy firm, IP-Squared, he provides strategic and practical advice in the public sector on how to provide more access to information, culture and knowledge. He is also the copyright coordinator for the Netherlands Association of the Archive Sector. Contact Maarten
Poland – Centrum Cyfrowe (Katarzyna Strycharz)
Kasia is a lawyer specializing in intellectual property rights, copyright reform and openness policies. She is a member of the Communia Association and legal lead at Creative Commons Polska. Currently she is coordinating a KR21 funded European study on national regulations in the area of e-lending. For more than 10 years she has been involved in the copyright reform for libraries, and previously was involved in promoting open access at Polish universities.
Centrum Cyfrowe Foundation (FCC) is a think-and-do tank based in Warsaw (Poland) that supports openness and engagement in the digital world. Together with experts and practitioners open to change, it conducts research and creates space for new ideas, skills and tools development. It strives to ensure that the social interest is always in the first place in the relationship between humans and technology. Contact Kasia
Portugal – Eduardo Leonardo dos Santos
Eduardo is an attorney-at-law based in Lisbon. He is co-founder and president of the Portuguese digital rights organization D3 – Defesa dos Direitos Digitais. He was actively engaged in policy, advocacy and campaigning work during the CDSM legislative process in the European Union and its local implementation. He contributes to research projects in the area of Law & Tech.
Eduardo holds a Law degree from the Lisbon University and a Post-Graduation in Law & Tech from Porto Faculty of Law – Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Currently, he is writing his thesis, on Copyright, for the Master’s in Law – Specialization in Business Law and Technology of NOVA School of Law (Lisbon), where he is also a researcher at NOVA Knowledge Centre on Intellectual Property & Sustainable Innovation (IPSI). Contact Eduardo
Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo – Intellectual Property Institute (Maja Bogataj Jančič)
Dr Maja Bogataj Jančič is the founder and head of the Intellectual Property Institute based in Slovenia. Her research and academic work is focused on intellectual property, especially copyright. She used to chair the copyright working group of the Council for European National Librarians. She is a board member of Communia and is a representative of the Slovenian chapter of the Creative Commons Global Network as well as being the CC Legal Lead in Slovenia. Maja’s work has recently focused on data governance and AI, especially copyright issues related to machine learning, data governance and AI. She is a co-chair of the data governance working group at the Global Artificial Intelligence Partnership (GPAI.AI). She holds several Master degrees (Ljubljana, Harvard and Turin) and a Doctoral degree from the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. She is the author and co-author of publications in the field of new technologies and intellectual property law. Contact Maja
Spain – FESABID (Ana Ordás)
Ana Ordás is an experienced librarian who skillfully incorporates digital content assets into project management and consulting within the library field. Throughout her career, Ana has played a crucial role in various innovative projects, including the implementation of a digital content lending platform. Her expertise extends to digital marketing, online communication, game-based learning, and gamification. As a dedicated consultant and trainer, Ana conducts dynamic workshops that highlight the power of maintaining a playful attitude. Her workshops help libraries adopt interactive and inclusive approaches. Ana has also worked in digital marketing and communication for esteemed institutions like the Ministry of Culture and Sports. Currently, she manages digital communication for FESABID. With her extensive experience and unwavering passion for libraries, Ana continuously explores avenues that contribute to enhancing the visibility of libraries as inclusive spaces for accessing knowledge. Contact Ana
Per Pettersson,
CC-BY-SA, source
Sweden – Wikimedia Sverige (Eric Luth)
Eric Luth and his colleagues at Wikimedia Sverige are passionate advocates for free knowledge. Together with cultural heritage institutions in Sweden as well as globally, they have spent more than a decade on digitizing and making knowledge freely available online. This work includes active advocacy for flexible copyright and all things open. They are represented as experts in a public inquiry on exceptions and limitations in Swedish copyright law, Wikimedia Sverige is in a central position to shape a better Swedish legislation. Contact Eric
United Kingdom – Benjamin White
Benjamin is one of the founders of Knowledge Rights 21, co-chairs the Policy Committee along with chairing LIBER’s Copyright and Legal Matters Working Group . He is a researcher at Bournemouth University’s Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management focussing on Artificial Intelligence, copyright law and its intersection with international trade law.
He is active in the intellectual property field within the UK and the EU, having sat on a number of bodies including the BBC’s Creative Archive Advisory Board, the UK Government’s Creative Economy Programme (Competition and Intellectual Property), i2010 Digital Libraries Programme, as well as the Institute of Public Policy Research’s Advisory Board on Intellectual Property and the Public Sphere.
Benjamin also chaired the copyright group of the Council for European National Librarians and currently sits on the UK Intellectual Property Office’s Copyright Research Expert Advisory Group. He has spoken as an expert legal witness at the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament, as well as at the BEIS Select Committee and a number of All Party groups in the UK. Contact Ben
