A public consultation on how to enhance the competitiveness of the publishing sector in the EU’s increasingly digital economy was launched by the European Commission today. Replies to this consultation, which are expected by mid-November 2005, should help EU policy makers to better understand the needs and challenges of Europe’s publishing industry....The starting point of the consultation launched today is a Commission study on factors affecting publishing industry competitiveness indicators. The study indicates that innovation and reform are major challenges facing the EU publishing industry....Comments by all interested parties are invited, inter alia, on: obstacles to the take-up of information and communication technologies; business models, including digital rights management systems; media ownership structures; differing regulatory traditions (licensed broadcast media, unlicensed press); and advertising rules.
This consultation is about media publishing, including newspapers, and is not the same as the EC inquiry into STM publishing and OA announced in June 2004 (and still ongoing). For example, the Commission Staff working paper for the new consultation, Strengthening the Competitiveness of the EU Publishing Sector, does not mention open access or the special circumstances of scientific publishing. However, the new consultation is broad enough to make recommendations on OA in connection with some of the named topics, such as competitiveness, business models, DRM, ownership, and licensing. So even if your interests are limited to OA, which I hope is not true of anyone, don't hesitate to send in your comments.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/23/2005 08:19:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
