The European Commission is considering targeted changes to the EU’s copyright framework to enhance the resilience and competitiveness of Europe’s cultural and creative sectors and to facilitate research and innovation. EIFL’s response to the targeted consultation focused on two areas: copyright and generative AI, and copyright and research. Case studies help to illustrate the need for change.

Generative AI: transparency, disclosure and record-keeping

On copyright and generative AI, EIFL called for clarification of EU copyright rules, especially on text and data mining, and the introduction of obligations on transparency, disclosure and record-keeping by AI companies. These measures would address practical and policy issues by helping to create legal certainty for users, making it easier for researchers, as copyright owners who have retained their rights, to understand how their content is used by web crawlers and AI agents, and increasing accountability among AI providers. It would also help to ensure that AI providers respect open licences and provide proper attribution of information in AI-generated outputs, particularly where outputs directly substitute for the original.

Importantly, in the midst of a growing reluctance by researchers to share content openly and less visibility for original sources, the measures would support sustainability of open access (OA) publishing and implementation of European open science policies. Currently, unclear responsibilities for rights clearance and a lack of trust and confidence in the behaviour of AI companies are discouraging researchers who fear their outputs may be usurped or manipulated by AI agents. At the same time, there is less engagement with the original sources as information from OA publications and repositories is known to be harvested by AI companies on an industrial scale, and AI-generated search results are increasingly embedded in browsers and pushed on users. This reduction in the visibility of OA publications makes it harder for the organizations producing and maintaining open content to demonstrate value and impact and it puts at risk future funding for open access projects.

A mandatory research exception and a right of secondary publication

On copyright and research, EIFL called for an updated, mandatory research exception and the introduction of an EU-wide Secondary Publication Right (SPR).  

An updated, harmonized, mandatory research exception (Article 5(3)(a) Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, 2019) would facilitate research in the digital environment and, by applying across borders, it would align with Horizon Europe, the EU's key funding programme for research and innovation (Horizon Europe requires participation from organizations in at least three different EU or associated countries). The current restriction to research for non-commercial purposes should be removed (public-private partnerships are recognized by Horizon Europe as a key tool to reduce fragmentation of funding for research and innovation). The exception should be protected from any contract terms for digital content that override the exception and any technological protection measures that prevent its enjoyment. 

An EU-wide Secondary Publication Right (SPR) would give authors of publicly-funded research a legal right to share their work in open access repositories,  even in the absence of an open access publishing agreement with the publisher or a national policy on open access. It would streamline compliance with OA policies, especially for international collaborations where co-authors are often subject to different legal frameworks, institutional policies, or publisher agreements restricting self-archiving or imposing embargo periods that exceed those permitted under national regulations. An effective, harmonized SPR should apply regardless of the proportion of public funding (no minimum funding requirement). It should enable immediate open access (no embargos) and all types of research (commercial and non-commercial). It should include a broad range of scientific output (not only journal articles), all types of outputs (articles, book chapters, images and tables), and all versions (including the Version of Record).

About

The European Commission’s targeted consultation (November 2026) builds on feedback from a call for evidence on a better copyright environment for European creativity and innovation (June 2026).

Read EIFL's submission to the targeted consultation here.

Read EIFL’s submission to the call for evidence here.