Society for Civil Rights (GFF) receives a grant from Arcadia for strategic litigation project control ©
Berlin, 07.09.2021 – The Society for Civil Rights e.V. (GFF), supported by Arcadia, is expanding its activities related to strengthening the fundamental right to academic freedom.
Since the inception of the control © project in April 2020, GFF has increased its commitment to promoting the fundamental freedom of communication where its exercise is affected by copyright. This includes academic freedom in particular, because research relies on the exchange of information, the right to quotation, and the automated processing of information. All these activities are governed by copyright law.
“The support from Arcadia allows us to seek a fundamental rights-friendly clarification of important open legal questions in the field of academic freedom through strategic litigation. For example, it will allow us to intensify our litigation for transparency of industrial funding at German universities. Beyond that, there is much to be done: Too often, research is hindered by technical copy protection on copyrighted content. Similarly, copyright is used to suppress the publication and re-use of publicly funded research. We want to address these and other issues with control ©”, says Felix Reda, project manager for control © at GFF and former Member of the European Parliament.
Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin – supports charities and scholarly institutions that preserve cultural heritage and the environment. Arcadia also supports projects that promote open access and all of its awards are granted on the condition that any materials produced are made available for free online. Since 2002, Arcadia has awarded more than $910 million to projects around the world. Arcadia will be supporting the GFF project control © under the leadership of Felix Reda with € 380,000 over a grant period of three years.
With the control © project, the GFF is committed to promoting freedom of opinion, freedom of information and freedom of the press where those freedoms stand in tension with copyright law or the protection of trade secrets. Further information on the project can be found at: https://freiheitsrechte.org/en/themen/demokratie/copyright-law
For further questions please don’t hesitate to contact us:
Janina Zillekens,
Tel. 030/549 08 10 55 oder 0175/610 2896
