Requests for Proposals: Research Exceptions, Technological Protection Measures

We are welcoming responses to two calls for proposals for research, focused on the impacts of research exceptions in copyright law, and on the interplay between technological protection measures and exceptions. REVISED DEADLINE: 12 March.

A key focus of the Knowledge Rights 21 Programme is to close some of evidence gaps that have stood in the way of policies that favour 21st century access to education, research and culture.

Through this work, we are looking to address questions where opposition to reform may be noisy, but where there there is relatively little empirical basis for claims made.

Our latest calls focus on two key parts of the Programme’s work.

First of all, as has already been underlined in various studies published by the European Commission, exceptions for research in national copyright laws are far from harmonised, with varying levels of restrictiveness on the activities of researchers.

To move beyond the theoretical, it is important to understand better how these may affect the way in which researchers themselves operate, in particular across borders. The first call therefore looks to commission work on this topic.

Second, it is too often the case that despite there being exceptions to exclusive rights in law, users cannot benefit from these because technological protection measures (digital locks) are in place. Sometimes these locks themselves benefit from legal protection, and even where they don’t, there may be no effective way of getting them removed.

So far, European law has only touched on this question in broad terms. The second call looks to help legislators understand whether a more focused approach is necessary.

Download the call for proposals on research exceptions.

Download the call for proposals on technological protection measures.