January Issues
January 28: European Data Protection Day
This date marks the anniversary of the Council of Europe’s Convention 108, the first binding international law securing individuals' rights to protection of their personal data. Data protection plays an essential role as safeguard of our democratic society against excessive intrusions in the citizens’ privacy by public or private actors. New technological developments in areas such as Artificial Intelligence and neuroscience bring new challenges to the right to the protection of personal data and other fundamental rights. While age-old challenges, such as access to data for law enforcement and national security purposes, have also to remain high on the political agenda.
January 14: World Logic Day
In the words of Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO: "More than ever, the discipline of logic is a particularly timely one, utterly vital to our societies and economies. Computer science and information and communications technology, for example, are rooted in logical and algorithmic reasoning."
The ability to think is one of the most defining features of humankind. In different cultures, the definition of humanity is associated with concepts such as consciousness, knowledge and reason. Logic, as the investigation on the principles of reasoning, has been studied by many civilizations throughout history and, since its earliest formulations, logic has played an important role in the development of philosophy and the sciences.
Public Domain Day 2025!
Another year has started... and another bevy of works dust off their copyright and emerge fresh-faced, full of hope, into the elysian plains of the public domain! This year we welcome, in lots of countries around the world, the works of two titans of 20th-century art, Frida Kahlo and Henri Matisse. Due to differing copyright laws around the world, there is no one single public domain, but there are three main types of copyright term for historical works which cover most cases. For these three systems, newly entering the public domain are:
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works by people who died in 1954, for countries with a copyright term of “life plus 70 years” (relevant in UK, most of the EU, and South America);
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works by people who died in 1974, for countries with a term of “life plus 50 years” (relevant to most of Africa and Asia);
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films and books (incl. artworks featured) published in 1929 (relevant solely to the United States).
So, it's time to get creative!
Happy New Year!
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres conveyed a message of hope as his new year´s message 2025. “Even in the darkest days, I’ve seen hope power change”, he declared.
Reflecting on the past year that brought “enormous pain, suffering and displacement”, he pledged “to stand with all those who are working to forge a more peaceful, equal, stable and healthy future for all people”, and encouraged all to “make 2025 a new beginning. Not as a world divided. But as nations united”.