Luca Schirru and Sean Flynn

EIFL Draft Law on Copyright

On May 27, 2025, EIFL launched an updated version of its Draft Law on Copyright, featuring a new provision on Secondary Publication Rights (SPRs) (more information about the process can be found here). The new provision reads as follows: 

8. Secondary Publication Right 

  1. The author of a research work shall have the right to make that work, in any of its versions, freely available to the public in an online repository immediately after its acceptance for publication by a publisher.
  2. A publisher that has accepted a research work for publication may not retract that acceptance on the ground that the author made the work freely available to the public in an online repository after acceptance of the article for publication.
  3. The operator of an online repository in which a research work has been made available to the public may include:  
    • A. an acknowledgement of the author, funder, and publisher of the work; and 
    • B. an indication of which version of the research work is being made available.
  4. Any contractual provision which prevents or restricts what is provided for in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be null and void.
  5. For the purpose of this Section, the following terms have the following meaning:
    • A. a “research work” means a work based on research directly or indirectly funded in whole or in part with public funding, including any third party content, such as images and tables, that are required for the specific purpose of understanding the research work;
    • B. a “version” of a research work means any iteration of the work, including: a preliminary draft; a draft submitted for publication but not yet peer-reviewed; a draft that has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication but not yet been edited or typeset; the final published form; and revisions to the final public form; and
    • C. “freely available” means immediate and permanent access, free of charge, for anyone to use, download, distribute, adapt, and build upon.

This provision is part of the EIFL Draft Law on Copyright, a “practical guide to assist librarians, policy-makers and legislators when copyright laws are being updated.” The guide aims to support libraries and is continually updated considering recent policy and legislative developments and the impact of new technologies.1 

Secondary Publication Rights

According to Angelopoulos (2022, p.4),2 a Secondary Publication Right is a “right for the author of a scientific publication to make it available online for free following a given embargo period”. Countries such as Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and, more recently, Slovenia, already have provisions addressing SPRs in their legal frameworks. 

In Belgium, for example, even in cases where the author has assigned their rights to a publisher, if the research was publicly funded, the author can make the manuscript publicly available in open access after 12 months for the humanities and social sciences, and 6 months for other sciences (Belgium Code of Economic Law, Art. XI. 196 2 §).3 Secondary Publication Rights are also present in South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill, through the insertion of section 12D in Act 98 of 1978, as follows:

Reproduction for educational and academic activities

12D […]  (7) 

(a) The author of a scientific or other contribution, which is the result of a research activity that received at least 50 per cent of its funding from the state and which has appeared in a collection, has the right, despite granting the publisher or editor an exclusive right of use, to make the final manuscript version available to the public under an open licence or by means of an open access institutional repository. 

(b) In the case of a contribution published in a collection that is issued periodically at least annually, an agreement may provide for a delay in the exercise of the author’s right referred to in paragraph (a) for up to 12 months from the date of the first publication in that periodical. 

(c) When the contribution is made available to the public as contemplated in paragraph (a), the place of the first publication must be properly acknowledged. 

(d) Third parties, such as librarians, may carry out activities contemplated in paragraphs (a) to (c) on behalf of the author. 

(e) Any agreement that denies the author any of the rights contemplated in this subsection shall be unenforceable.

SPRs are also closely linked to open access policy goals, as demonstrated by the Commission Recommendation 2018/790 on access to and preservation of scientific information. This Recommendation states that Member States should implement policies and action plans related to open access and that, as a result, “whatever the channel of publication[…], open access to publications resulting from publicly funded research be granted as soon as possible, preferably at the time of publication, and in any case no later than six months after the date of publication (no later than 12 months for social sciences and humanities).”

Footnotes:

  1.  EIFL. New! EIFL provision on Secondary Publication Rights in copyright law (EIFL, May 28, 2025), https://eifl.net/news/new-eifl-provision-secondary-publication-rights-copyright-law ↩︎
  2. European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Angelopoulos, C., Study on EU copyright and related rights and access to and reuse of scientific publications, including open access : exceptions and limitations, rights retention strategies and the secondary publication right, Publications Office of the European Union, 2022, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/891665. ↩︎
  3. WIPO Lex, Code of Economic Law (updated on July 18, 2024), Belgium. “Art. XI.196 § 2. [3 …]3 [2 § 2/1. L’auteur d’un article scientifique issu d’une recherche financée pour au moins la moitié par des fonds publics conserve, même si, conformément à l’article XI.167, il a cédé ses droits à un éditeur d’un périodique ou les a placés sous une licence simple ou exclusive, le droit de mettre le manuscrit gratuitement à la disposition du public en libre accès après un délai de douze mois pour les sciences humaines et sociales et six mois pour les autres sciences, après la première publication, dans un périodique, moyennant mention de la source de la première publication. Le contrat d’édition peut prévoir un délai plus court que celui fixé à l’alinéa 1er. Le Roi peut prolonger le délai fixé à l’alinéa 1er. Il ne peut être renoncé au droit prévu à l’alinéa 1er. Ce droit est impératif et est d’application nonobstant le droit choisi par les parties dès lors qu’un point de rattachement est localisé en Belgique. Il s’applique également aux oeuvres créées avant l’entrée en vigueur de ce paragraphe et non tombées dans le domaine public à ce moment.]2 § 3. L’éditeur ne peut céder son contrat sans l’assentiment du titulaire du droit d’auteur, sauf en cas de cession concomitante de tout ou partie de son entreprise.]1 ———- (1) (2) (3)” ↩︎