At the meeting in Tallin, there were several reports and presentations that you might find interesting. I will include some statistics and reports in my next newsletter, but here are two that speak for themselves and are certainly interesting for all European educational publishers.
There was also a verbal report by Anne Bergman of FEP with an update on activities.
Copyright in the DSM (digital single market), proposed Directive, is now in Parliament and Council. Of main concern are:
Accessibility - Marrakesh & Regulation on Accessibility for all
An email was sent to MEPs by Creative Commons to donate per month to create a repository for OERs. FEP would be interested to know the cost per month of digital textbooks in various EU countries? (questions regarding these issues will be added to the survey on expenditure n the next EEPG newsletter)
- The presentation by René Montenarie of GEU, regarding the public-private partnership behind the Edu-K project in the Netherlands.
- The presentation by Brian Gilsenan, on behalf of the working group aiming to give momentum to an EPF campaign to advocate the value of educational publishing.
There was also a verbal report by Anne Bergman of FEP with an update on activities.
Copyright in the DSM (digital single market), proposed Directive, is now in Parliament and Council. Of main concern are:
- Article 4 on an exception for illustration of teaching: initial text foresees an exception that can be replaced by licences if the Member States agree (optional); there is a risk that informal education gets covered (how can this be either licensed or compensated for) and that instead of secured networks, the exception covers open internet, OER and MOOCs
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Articles 6 to 8 on out of commerce
- How will this work with textbooks?
- How will the institutions select the out of commerce works?
- Is a previous edition of an updated textbook out of commerce?
- Also the Articles about the remuneration of authors could be problematic if they cover all authors, even those paid a fixed fee.
Accessibility - Marrakesh & Regulation on Accessibility for all
- one gives the right to organisations to adapt the books for print disabled persons,
- the second imposes under certain conditions, accessibility features to all ebooks published or sold in Europe (in the next EEPG newsletter there will be an update on this by professor Dusan Popovic, explaining the latest developments and what it means for educational publishers)
An email was sent to MEPs by Creative Commons to donate per month to create a repository for OERs. FEP would be interested to know the cost per month of digital textbooks in various EU countries? (questions regarding these issues will be added to the survey on expenditure n the next EEPG newsletter)