European Research organisations, libraries, repositories and university networks call for the exclusion of not-for-profit repositories, digital archives and libraries from the obligations of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Not-for-profit scientific and educational repositories, digital archives, and libraries that allow for the upload of content by students, researchers, and third parties – such as in the context of citizen science projects undertaken by universities or libraries – are likely to fall in the scope of the current version of the Digital Services Act. This is in spite of the fact that the legislation is devised for and targeted at commercial platforms. As a result, not-for-profit educational and scientific digital infrastructures would incur additional administrative and financial costs.
The European Higher Education sector is very worried about the possible negative implications that the DSA might have on their activities. This is why YERUN has joined a group of universities, research performing organisations, research funding organisations, research libraries, and repositories in Europe in a statement aimed to raise awareness among policy makers on the risks that the DSA might cause to the university sector and to allow targeted exemptions for the not-for-profit educational and scientific repositories, digital archives and libraries from the Digital Services Act.
