Academics also have authors’ rights and are entitled to remuneration.

In the Nordic countries on the labor market, we stick to the so-called “Nordic Model”, where we enter into voluntary and credible agreements with each other – also when it comes to authors’ rights.

In particular, educational institutions copy both analogously and digitally large amounts of work protected by authors’ rights and copyright. With the licensing agreement, collective management organizations ensure that the authors are being remunerated

That scheme was put under pressure when the EU launched a new copyright directive. However, through diligent work, the Nordic countries succeeded not only in preserving our agreement license, but having it written into the new directive.

This gives us a very strong position – also when new areas need to be covered, for example the further utilization of knowledge on the digital platforms.

Academics, like any other writers, have rights and must claim their remuneration. EWC Member UBVA (The Committee for the Protection of Scientific and Scholarly Work) at The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations in Denmark ensures that everyone is covered and that there is unanimous understanding of authors’ rights within the academic environment.

Nevertheless, the EU directive gave rise to heavy swings and in the Nordic countries there was disagreements about article 17 – the so called “YouTube-article”, which some feared would restrict the use of the internet. However, so far there is not much to suggest this to happen. On the contrary, users, analogous to digital, are often supporters of the contract license because it makes it easy to be a user, and what is left is to agree about the price. Such a negotiating environment is absolutely crucial to copyright and authors’ rights – how can academics help to secure it?