EC's 'forward looking package' ignoring pivotal copyright law studies

Prof. Bernt Hugenholtz, Director of the Institute for Information Law at the University of Amsterdam (IViR), wrote an open letter about the European Commission’s “Intellectual Property Package”. Addressing two major studies on the impact of EU copyright law and policies produced in 2006 and 2007 by the IViR, Prof. Hugenholtz states his "complete surprise" in discovering that such studies "have been almost entirely ignored in the so-called 'forward looking package' on IP", recently released by the EC. [08/28/08]

In particular, this 'package' fails to even mention the IViR's Recasting Study, which "on the basis of a thorough legal and economic analysis, rejects the main arguments made in favour of an extension". Furthermore, the letter underlines that such behaviour is against the need to "increase the transparency of the EU legislative process", also part of the Lisboa agenda - thus reinforcing the suspicion that such "policies are less the product of a rational decision-making process than of lobbying by stakeholders".

In urging the EC to fully inform the Parliament about the IViR's findings, Prof. Hugenholtz relates also the "European citizens' increasingly critical attitudes towards intellectual property law".

The letter was sent to Manuel Barroso, president of the EC, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, and it's also available on the Institute website along with full texts of both studies.

On the same issue, please see also the letter published by The Times of London and signed by about 20 professors teaching in several European universities.