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Xalabarder, Raquel --- "On-line teaching and copyright: any hopes for an EU harmonized playground?" [2007] ELECD 307; in Torremans, Paul (ed), "Copyright Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Copyright Law

Editor(s): Torremans, Paul

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845424879

Section: Chapter 15

Section Title: On-line teaching and copyright: any hopes for an EU harmonized playground?

Author(s): Xalabarder, Raquel

Number of pages: 29

Extract:

15 On-line teaching and copyright: any hopes
for an EU harmonized playground?
Raquel Xalabarder1



Introduction
Education never fails to be mentioned ­ and, often, mentioned first ­ as a public
interest that justifies an exception to copyright. Educational purposes were
already present in the first version of the Berne Convention of 18862 and have
remained there (although in revised language) ever since. The WIPO Copyright
Treaty of 19963 expressly referred to education in its Preamble, when
`Recognizing the need to maintain a balance between the rights of authors and
the larger public interest, particularly education, research and access to infor-
mation, as reflected in the Berne Convention' (emphasis added). And more
recently, the EU Directive on Copyright in the Information Society4 stressed its
goal `to promote learning and culture by protecting works and other subject-
matter while permitting exceptions or limitations in the public interest for the
purpose of education and teaching' (Recital 14, emphasis added).
Despite being widely accepted as a fundamental right to be balanced
against authors' exclusive rights, domestic laws fail to grant uniform and
comprehensive treatment to education as a copyright exception or limitation.5

1 Dra. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. This chapter is based on a presentation
delivered at the 2006 ATRIP Congress in Parma (4­6 September 2006),
www.atrip.org, as well as a result from a research project on `Copyright and Digital
Distance Education' funded by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (2002­3),
www.uoc.edu/in3/dt/esp/20418.html, accessed 13 ...