Knowledge Rights 21 (KR21) is focused on bringing about changes in legislation and practice across Europe that will strengthen the right of all to knowledge. It is built on our conviction that the free and open sharing of knowledge is essential for education, innovation and cultural participation, and that everyone should have the possibility to access and use information in both analogue and digital forms. This, in turn, will help Europe deliver on its economic, social, environmental and democratic potential.
In order to achieve this goal it is vitally important to enable and facilitate the work of researchers, educators and learners through legislative, regulatory and policy change. This requires the creation of an appropriate information ecology for European citizens, including modern copyright, digital platform and competition laws as well as appropriate investment in digital public research and education infrastructures.
To achieve this, working through our Policy Committee, Brussels based staff and Europe-wide national coordinators, and under the oversight of our Management Committee, we seek to promote our goals to policy makers and stakeholders across the continent and beyond.
Our work includes a focus on:
- Facilitating fair access to e-books, e-journals and other forms of digital content for users of public, national, educational, and research libraries;
- Protecting users’ rights under copyright legislation from contract override and technological protection measures that undermine statutory exceptions to copyright;
- Promoting the case for the introduction of open and flexible copyright norms in Europe to aid research, teaching, and learning;
- Advocating for a legislated parallel publication / secondary publishing right in laws;
- Accelerating the uptake of author rights retention and open licensing activities;
- Better platform regulations to create a safe harbour for education and research organisations;
- A right of access to all forms of digital content for research purposes.
