Zooming in on Education: An Empirical Study on Digital Platforms and Copyright in the United Kingdom, Italy, and the Netherlands

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant change in the types of teaching infrastructure used in higher education. This article examines how the use of commercial digital platforms for educational purposes impacted on teaching practices. At the same time, it shines a light on the experiences and (legal) perceptions of educators as an essential category of stakeholders within the EU copyright legal framework. Against the background of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the study reflects on the process of ‘platformisation’ of education and delves into copyright-related aspects of the online teaching and learning environments. The study is based on the presumption that the pandemic-induced transformation of education would require institutional adjustments as well as an enhanced level of copyright awareness among educators. It provides data and evidence based on an empirical study conducted in 2021 surveying over 200 educators in the UK, Italy, and the Netherlands. The results, presented in this article, point at several problematic aspects in relation to ‘platformised’ educational practices and materials, including a low awareness and misled perceptions on copyright legal rules and an increasing role of digital commercial platforms as factual regulators of the higher education sector

Zooming in on Education: An Empirical Study on Digital Platforms and Copyright in the United Kingdom, Italy, and the Netherlands

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant change in the types of teaching infrastructure used in higher education. This article examines how the use of commercial digital platforms for educational purposes impacted on teaching practices. At the same time, it shines a light on the experiences and (legal) perceptions of educators as an essential category of stakeholders within the EU copyright legal framework. Against the background of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the study reflects on the process of ‘platformisation’ of education and delves into copyright-related aspects of the online teaching and learning environments. The study is based on the presumption that the pandemic-induced transformation of education would require institutional adjustments as well as an enhanced level of copyright awareness among educators. It provides data and evidence based on an empirical study conducted in 2021 surveying over 200 educators in the UK, Italy, and the Netherlands. The results, presented in this article, point at several problematic aspects in relation to ‘platformised’ educational practices and materials, including a low awareness and misled perceptions on copyright legal rules and an increasing role of digital commercial platforms as factual regulators of the higher education sector

Capturing the Uncapturable: The Relationship between Universities and Copyright through the Lens of the Audio-Visual Lecture Capture Policies

The COVID-19 pandemic has consolidated a double move. On the one hand, universities are becoming increasingly aware of the strategic value of copyright. On the other hand, the necessity to embrace distance education is making universities realise that there is a wealth of issues that go beyond ownership of research outputs and reprography rights. Understanding the role of universities as copyright subjects today requires understanding the rise of the ‘platformisation’ of learning, which this chapter does by analysing the audio-visual lecture capture policies of the largest universities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy and France. The rules on lecture capture represent a meaningful entry point to investigate strengths and weaknesses of the universities’ approach to the creation and use of protected content online. Through this lens, it is possible to reflect on both the underlying exacerbated power imbalance between universities and teachers, and the diverging approach towards copyright law across the European higher education landscape. First, the chapter considers whether the selected universities had a specific policy on lecture capture, and, if so, what it covered, and where the default rule sat in the continuum between opt-out and opt-in. Then, it investigates issues of ownership of the lecture recordings, including the incorporated slides and other materials as well as the performance rights. Ownership rules significantly affect who can exploit the recordings and under which conditions, thus raising delicate and timely questions on the management and commercialisation of recorded lectures, the protection of moral rights and the retention of economic ones. Despite stark differences between the selected countries’ approach, the clear trend towards an increased expectation that teachers have to record their lectures epitomises the digital dispossession that is inherent to the platformisation of education. Nonetheless, the oft-forgotten rights in performances can still play a role in pursuing a fairer balance between the competing interests at play.Output Status: Forthcomin

Capturing the Uncapturable: The Relationship between Universities and Copyright through the Lens of the Audio-Visual Lecture Capture Policies

The COVID-19 pandemic has consolidated a double move. On the one hand, universities are becoming increasingly aware of the strategic value of copyright. On the other hand, the necessity to embrace distance education is making universities realise that there is a wealth of issues that go beyond ownership of research outputs and reprography rights. Understanding the role of universities as copyright subjects today requires understanding the rise of the ‘platformisation’ of learning, which this chapter does by analysing the audio-visual lecture capture policies of the largest universities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy and France. The rules on lecture capture represent a meaningful entry point to investigate strengths and weaknesses of the universities’ approach to the creation and use of protected content online. Through this lens, it is possible to reflect on both the underlying exacerbated power imbalance between universities and teachers, and the diverging approach towards copyright law across the European higher education landscape. First, the chapter considers whether the selected universities had a specific policy on lecture capture, and, if so, what it covered, and where the default rule sat in the continuum between opt-out and opt-in. Then, it investigates issues of ownership of the lecture recordings, including the incorporated slides and other materials as well as the performance rights. Ownership rules significantly affect who can exploit the recordings and under which conditions, thus raising delicate and timely questions on the management and commercialisation of recorded lectures, the protection of moral rights and the retention of economic ones. Despite stark differences between the selected countries’ approach, the clear trend towards an increased expectation that teachers have to record their lectures epitomises the digital dispossession that is inherent to the platformisation of education. Nonetheless, the oft-forgotten rights in performances can still play a role in pursuing a fairer balance between the competing interests at play

Copyright and Remote Teaching in the Time of COVID-19: A Study of Contractual Terms and Conditions of Selected Online Services

The spread of the COVID-19 virus forced educational institutions to transition to online education. This contribution analyses, through the lens of copyright law, the terms and conditions of some selected online services used to deliver remote teaching. The study highlights the most problematic terms and their detrimental effects on remote teaching by focusing on copyright ownership, liability, and content moderation

Italian Style: Legislative Developments in Accommodation, Mobility, Food, Delivery, and Transport in Italy's Collaborative and Sharing Economy

This contribution pays special attention to the Italian legal framework concerning the collaborative and sharing economy, with a focus on those economic initiatives which are platform mediated. This choice is due to the importance of the concept of “platform” in the definitions of the CSE provided at both the Italian and the European levels. As highlighted in some studies, most actors of the CSE can be considered not only economic disruptors but also policy disruptors. Thus, the chapter tries to shed light on the difficulties Italian regulators had while dealing with the emergence of these actors, especially in sectors such as food, accommodation, delivery, and transport. Italian policymakers were not able to design new regulatory frameworks to cope with the challenges of CSE, privileging bans or almost total deregulation over the elaboration of innovative rules. Regarding the issue of digital labour, the Italian legislator adopted a partial solution, creating a framework that dualizes the labour market, maybe with the aim of satisfying both digital workers and platforms. Overall, it seems that the Italian ecosystem of the CSE is bound to evolve, especially after the appearance of the health crisis related to the COVID-19

Didattica di emergenza o Emergency Remote Teaching: un'analisi empirica in tema di privacy e diritto d'autore dei termini e condizioni dei servizi online più diffusi

Questo Working Paper si propone di fare luce su aspetti critici e potenziali problematiche nascoste nella “giungla” di termini e condizioni delle piattaforme online più diffuse per la didattica di emergenza. L’obiettivo è quello di verificare se le informazioni fornite agli utenti di tali servizi possano considerarsi sufficientemente chiare, esaustive ed appropriate affinché i docenti possano svolgere le attività didattiche ed interagire con i propri studenti senza preoccuparsi di possibili conseguenze giuridiche sfavorevoli, dando libero sfogo alla loro creatività e contando su un’adeguata tutela della loro privacy. A tal fine, lo studio qui presentato esamina termini e condizioni di servizio, privacy policy e community guideline (di seguito, collettivamente, termini) di nove servizi online selezionati tra quelli più comunemente utilizzati dai docenti universitari in Europa per l’insegnamento nelle recenti circostanze di ER

Diritto d’autore e accesso all’informazione giornalistica: accanimento o lungimiranza del legislatore comunitario?

L’industria giornalistica sta vivendo una transizione epocale verso il mercato digitale. I contenuti editoriali, tanto su carta quanto online, si confermano risorsa essenziale e potenzialmente molto redditizia nei mercati dell’informazione e vero e proprio pilastro per la società democratica. Se finora il ruolo giocato dal diritto d’autore nel proteggere ed incentivare la produzione di articoli giornalistici è rimasto per lo più nella penombra, l’avvento di nuove forme di utilizzo online ha acceso i riflettori proprio sulla tutela autoriale come possibile panacea ai profondi squilibri economici di cui è vittima il settore giornalistico. A fronte di interventi legislativi in questa direzione, primo fra tutti l’Articolo 15 della Direttiva UE sul Diritto D’Autore nel Mercato Unico Digitale del 2019, l’articolo si propone di contestualizzare e valutare in maniera critica l’efficacia di tale scelta riformatrice, ripercorrendo e sistematizzando la normativa comunitaria ed italiana sul diritto d’autore in ambito giornalistico, studiandone aspetti salienti e funzioni perseguite ed offrendo supporto all’interpretazione giuridica in vista dell’imminente implementazione nazionale della recente Direttiva. / The press industry is undergoing a remarkable transition towards the digital dimension. In this shift, newspapers, periodicals, and, ever more, digital press content confirm themselves as an essential resource, a potentially highly profitable asset, and a beacon of democracy in our information society. The role played by copyright law in the press sector has remained to date mostly unchallenged, pivoting on the need to incentivize the production of press articles and protect investments. However, the expansion of online uses of such content has shed light on copyright’s potential to intervene and solve the profound economic imbalances the sector is facing. Article 15 of the most recent Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM) is a glaring example of the consolidation of this direction. In this light, the article purports to contextualize and critically assess the adequacy and effectiveness of the normative evolution of copyright law vis-à-vis press content at both EU and national level. It does so by retracing and systematizing the EU and Italian relevant legislation, highlighting focal points in the modern discourse on copyright’s role and functions, and providing interpretative guidance in light of the upcoming national implementation of the new CDSM Directive

Catching sight of a glimmer of light: Fair remuneration and the emerging distributive rationale in the reform of EU copyright law

Abstract In the haze of highly polarized debates on the recently adopted EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM), its focus on the notion of fair remuneration has passed over rather quietly. Three provisions in the Directive deal specifically with the fair distribution of revenue from online platforms to producers and, in turn, from producers to authors. Taking the cue from these new rules, the article investigates the restrictive interpretation of fair remuneration as fairly distributed income among right holders. The analysis purports to unearth the underlying distributive rationale of the new Directive as well as identify traces of it throughout the evolution of EU copyright law. By this token, the controversial CDSM Directive proves a valid opportunity to shed new light on the objectives of EU copyright law and assess its modernization in light of a distributive perspective