Day 1: Copyright Policy Should Be Made in the Open With Input From Everyone
Copyright is not a niche concern. It affects everyone’s experience online, therefore laws and policy should be made in the open and with users’ concerns represented and taken into account.
Learn More:
- EFF: It's Copyright Week 2025: Join Us in the Fight for Better Copyright Law and Policy
- Information Labs: Inclusive Copyright Conversations
- Knowledge Rights 21: The evidence is clear: EU copyright and digital policy repeatedly overlook research, education, and library voices.
- Public Knowledge: Celebs: They’re Just Like Us! (Or Might Be, Under These New Anti-Deepfake Bills)
- EFF: Don't Make Copyright Law in Smoke-Filled Rooms
- Re:Create: Ensuring the Commonly Forgotten Voices Are Counted In Copyright Discussions
Day 2: Copyright Enforcement as a Tool of Censorship
Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right essential to a functioning democracy. Copyright should encourage more speech, not act as a legal cudgel to silence it.
Learn More:
- Public Knowledge: Not so Smart: The SMART Copyright Act’s Dangerous Approach to Online Copyright Protection
- EFF: What Proponents of Digital Replica Laws Can Learn from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
- Information Labs: AI content moderation raises red flags for free speech, sparking fresh censorship fears
- Knowledge Rights 21: A great moment to revisit this June 2024 must-read independent expert study
Day 3: Device and Digital Ownership
As the things we buy increasingly exist either in digital form or as devices with software, we also find ourselves subject to onerous licensing agreements and technological restrictions. If you buy something, you should be able to truly own it – meaning you can learn how it works, repair it, remove unwanted features, or tinker with it to make it work in a new way.
Learn More:
- Public Knowledge: Ownership Used to Mean Something
- Information Labs: Taking a broader view of digital ownership reveals an alarming trend in access to scientific data!
- Knowledge Rights 21: Digital locks block legitimate research and educational uses, threaten digital heritage preservation efforts, and put our collective digital history at risk of permanent loss.
Day 4: The Preservation and Sharing of Information and Culture
Copyright often blocks the preservation and sharing of information and culture, traditionally in the public interest. Copyright law and policy should encourage and not discourage the saving and sharing of information.
Learn More:
- Public Knowledge: Copyright Vogued, Dragged, and Bounced: Reimagining ‘Fair Use’ Through LGBTQ+ Artistic Expressions
- Information Labs: AI offers powerful new tools to benefit from cultural heritage.
- Knowledge Rights 21: The Australian Untapped programme explored what happens when libraries digitise and lend out-of-print books, providing valuable insights for the European eBooks debates
- EFF: The Internet Never Forgets: Fighting the Memory Hole
Day 5: Free Expression and Fair Use
Copyright policy should encourage creativity, not hamper it. Fair use makes it possible for us to comment, criticize, and rework our common culture.
Learn More:
- Public Knowledge: Prince Prints, Minted in Tints, and Article III’s Art Critic Stints
- EFF: Copyright is a Civil Liberties Nightmare
- ARL: Finally! A Licensing Guide to Help Libraries Protect Fair Use Rights in the Digital Age
- Information Labs: At the intersection of AI and creativity, a fundamental question emerges about access to the basic building blocks of language or music
- Knowledge Rights 21: There is much to gain and little to lose by adopting open norms in copyright law!