Brigitte Vézina

Director of Policy and Open Culture

Brigitte Vézina (Photo by Victoria Heath, CC BY)

Brigitte is passionate about all things spanning culture, arts, handicraft, traditions, fashion and, of course, copyright law and policy. She gets a kick out of tackling the fuzzy legal and policy issues that stand in the way of access, use, re-use and remix of culture, information and knowledge.

Before joining CC, she worked for a decade as a legal officer at WIPO and then ran her own consultancy, advising Europeana, SPARC Europe and others on copyright matters.

Currently located in the Netherlands where she lives with her husband and two kids, Brigitte grew up living in eight different countries across North America, Africa and Europe but Montréal is where she proudly comes from.

Brigitte is a fellow at the Canadian think tank Centre for International Governance Innovation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the Université de Montréal and a master’s in law from Georgetown University. She has been a member of the Bar of Quebec since 2003.

Photo credit: Victoria Heath CC BY 4.0

Posts by Brigitte Vézina

What are the Benefits of Open Culture? A new CC Publication

by Brigitte Vézina, Connor Benedict Open Culture, Open Heritage

Today we in the Open Culture Program are releasing a new publication: Don’t be a Dinosaur; or, The Benefits of Open Culture.

CC at WIPO: Slow progress on copyright exceptions for cultural heritage institutions

by Brigitte Vézina Copyright, Open Culture

Last week, Creative Commons (CC) participated in the 45th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). In this post, we report on the session discussions on exceptions and limitations for cultural heritage institutions (CHIs), a topic of utmost relevance to our Open Culture Program.

CC’s take on the European Media Freedom Act

by Brigitte Vézina, Mark Foster, Jennryn Wetzler Open Journalism

Last month, the European Parliament and Council gave the green light to an important piece of legislation: the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). In this blog post, we look at the aims of the EMFA and why it matters for Creative Commons (CC) and everyone’s right to access trustworthy information.

Celebrating the Public Domain in the Capital of Europe

by Connor Benedict, Brigitte Vézina Open Culture

Last week, Creative Commons took part in the International Public Domain Day celebration at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. Two engaging roundtables were hosted, delving into copyright issues concerning the public domain and its future. The event united advocates for open access to cultural heritage, featuring presentations on topics like the monetization and decolonization of the public domain, as well as updates on the Europeana Public Domain Charter. Creative Commons introduced new guidelines published in February aimed at encouraging users to reference institutions when utilizing public domain cultural heritage materials.

EU adopts landmark Artificial Intelligence Act

by Brigitte Vézina, Mark Foster Copyright

Creative Commons welcomes the adoption by the European Parliament of the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act. We engaged intensively with EU policymakers to safeguard the appropriate interplay with EU copyright legislation. The EU must now ensure implementation allows broad, open access to harness the full potential of generative AI whilst enforcing the safeguards provided.