CO:OPyright: Challenges and Practices of Copyright and Licensing of Digital Cultural Heritage

The conference is hosted by the Centre for Information Modelling - Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and the Institute of the Foundations of Law, Section 'Law and ICT' at the University of Graz (Austria).
In the age of digital information technology and the constant availability of information through the Internet, it is not only important to have democratic access to knowledge, but also essential to consider the potential that lies in the critical production and expansion of knowledge. The CO:OP – short for Community as Opportunity: the creative archives' and users' network – co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union aims to strengthen and promote the co-operation between institutions preserving our common cultural heritage and the general public.
Of particular interest and concern to cultural heritage institutions are issues of copyright on, provision of and access to digitized material. There is a recognizable political drive in the European Union to facilitate public access to cultural heritage – and data in general – hosted at public institutions. However, the lack of legal harmonization and the often unclear national legislations on the use and provision of resources by public cultural heritage or scientific institutions has been prohibiting a much broader engagement between the general public and its own cultural heritage.