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. Meet them below:
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.
Greece – Giorgos 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Slovenia – 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.
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.
Western Balkans (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo) – Regional Coordinator – Intellectual Property Institute (Maja Bogataj Jančič)
See CV above. Contact Maja
