Hi all,
The IPR Observatory [1] of the European Commission have now officially
included a study requested by us with the support of other civil society
actors in their 2015 working programme. The study is on "economic
contribution of public domain and open licensing".
The Observatory has sent us some additional questions now that might be
important for the final outcome. I would appreciate any comments/ideas/help
in answering those in the best possible way. The questions can be seen in
the PDF attachment.
Thanks a lot!
Dimi
[1]https://oami.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/web/observatory/home
Dear all,
just a note that there will a workshop called "Cultural Heritage in a
Digital Europe" dedicated to copyright reform in the EP. Panelists will
include representatives from the publishers (who want to block any reform),
IFLA (who are leading the Lyon Declaration initiative) and the Head of Unit
"Copyright" (who will oversee the drafting of the reform text).
If in Brussels 11 November, you shouldn't miss it! People asking spot-on
questions usually helps.
[image: cid:image002.png@01CFF212.CB113770]
Cheers,
Dimi
Hi all,
tl;dr
This is to let you know, that our "Position Paper on EU Copyright Reform"
[1] has now been signed by 31 organisations and will be send out next week.
Signatories
We have 31 organisations from 17 European countries that signed it
15 Wikimedia chapters/thematic organisations/user groups
5 Open Knowledge (Foundation) chapters/groups
4 Organisations that primarily work on digital rights
3 Organisations mostly dedicated to free/open knowledge and IP issues
3 Organisations focused on free and open software
1 Open Street Map Foundation national partner
Unfortunately, the Open Street Map Foundation wants to sign it (the paper
enjoyed vast support within their community) but for organisational reasons
it would take them quite a while do so and we shouldn't wait much longer to
send it out. Also, at least two more OKFN chapters stated their support for
this, but haven't answered since.
Soft launch
We plan on sending this out to people directly involved in the drafting
process of the copyright reform proposal and ask for face-to-face meetings.
Trying to get general media attention seems like a waste at this point, As
the reform proposal is nowhere near publication at this point. I feel it
wold be wasted without (political) impact.
Nevertheless, if you feel like sharing this, please feel more than free to
do so (social media, blogposts).
Brussels Background
The new European Commission has its eyes on reforming copyright. The unit
responsible for this was moved from the "internal market" directorate (DG
MARKT) to the "internet" directorate (DG Connect), sending a rather
positive signal. However, there is still considerable struggle within the
institutions which way and how far to go. This paper intends to encourage
the reform-willing crowd to act.
PDF Version
I am also attaching a PDF version of the Meta page that will be used in
correspondence. Please let me know if you think something is not okay or it
can be improved until early next week.
Thanks a ton to everyone who helped with this (more than 30 active people
by my count)!
Cheers,
Dimi
[1]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Position_Paper_on_EU_Copyright
Hello advocacy advisers,
In August, the International Federation of Library Associations published
the Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development (http://www.
lyondeclaration.org/). The Lyon Declaration is a statement to the member
states of the UN about empowering development through access to knowledge.
The declaration is particularly relevant for our work as Wikimedians
because it recognizes the importance of technology in sharing knowledge.
Wikimedia Italy and Wikimedia UK have already signed declaration. We would
like the Wikimedia Foundation to join these and others in support of our
goal to share knowledge. Please let me know if you have any thoughts about
this by November 3, 2014.
Thanks,
Stephen
--
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
*NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical
reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*
(probably this can be commented by more qualified people than myself)
TL;DR
Chile's government (Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones, SUBTEL) has
issued a circular (i.e. an explanation of the law), called circular n.
40[1], earlier in April this year stating that zero-rating go against
the Chilean net neutrality law in force (spec. disposition n. 6 and 7.
of law n. 18.168)[*]. Today SUBTEL has "confirmed to us [WMF and
Wikimedia Chile] that the new order was not intended to prevent
Wikipedia Zero and similar free knowledge initiatives"
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/09/22/chilean-regulator-welcomes-wikipedia-z…
Well, in one word this is, for sure, "a thing".
Cristian
[1] http://www.subtel.gob.cl/transparencia/Perfiles/Transparencia20285/Normativ…
[*] {{es}} (end of page 1) "La estructura de la oferta en comento,
importan a juicio de esta autoridad una contravención a las normas que
en la especie regulan y prohiben conductas discriminatorias de
contenidos, aplicaciones o servicios, que integran el principio de
Neutralidad de Red contenidas en la normativa sectorial, y en
particular al texto del articulo 24o H letra a) de la Ley [dispuesto
6o y 7o de la Ley no. 18,168]"
{{en}} "The structure of the offers under scrutiny, imply to the
judjement of this authority an infringement of the norms ... which
regulate and prohibit conduct of discrimination of contents,
applications or services which constitute the principle of Net
Neutrality contained in the sectorial norms, and in particular in the
text of the article 24th H letter a) of the [aforementioned] law"
Hi all,
just to let you know that the second "digital" Commissioner had his hearing
last night and to share some impressions with you. Adrus Ansip from Estonia
is designated as Vice-President for the Digital Single Market.
Overall he appeared well prepared and knowledgeable on the issues he was
asked. On copyright reform, the three main points he made were clear enough:
*Remove territoriality within the EU (meaning: harmonisation)
*Current copyright is prohibitive for text and data mining (meaning: new
exceptions/limitations)
*Geo-blocking goes against the core of the digital single market. I will
work to abolish it. (meaning: again harmonisation)
Other interesting points he made included:
- *Net Neutrality is important (comment: but then he spoke about search
neutrality so I am confused)
- *Right to be forgotten must remain an exception (meaning: unclear)
- *Access to internet is a human right and we need an internet rights
charta (comment: sounds great)
- *Data protection is very important (comment: avoided clear wording on
what this means)
- *Software code produced for the EU must be open source or free
software, coding must be part of school curriculum
Other than that he talked a lot about paperless administration. In relation
to Oettinger (Commissioner-designate for Digital Economy and Society) , he
sees himself as the "horizontal" commissioner, while his German colleague
is the "vertical" one. My favourite and most re-tweeted sound-bite was: "We
have to review our copyright legislation especially in regard to
territoriality. This is old-fashioned".
Cheers,
Dimi
Hi, Vladimir-
This is great news; I hope you don't mind that I've forwarded it to the
advocacy-advisors mailing list.
We've been trying to put together case studies where Wikimedians have been
involved in political change, so that we can all learn from each other -
what works, what doesn't. Perhaps someone on this list or in the Russian
community would be interested in creating one?
Thanks - and congratulations!
Luis
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vladimir Medeyko <medeyko(a)gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 7:06 PM
Subject: Amendments on Free Licenses and Freedom of Panorama Entered into
Force in Russia!
Dear colleagues!
*Amendments on Free Licenses and Freedom of Panorama Entered into Force in
Russia!*
Wikimedia RU congratulates the Russians and all the proponents of the free
content with changes in the Russian Civil Code, which are very important
for the use of the free content. Particularly, the amendments are extremely
important for the Wikipedia internet-enclyclopedia and other projects for
the creation and the dissemination of educational and scientific
information; and for the free software. The amendments entered into force
on October 1st, 2014; Wikimedia RU actively participated in the preparation
of the amendments.
Among the numerous changes, we should mention:
*Open licenses* introduced. It includes free licenses (which are
fundamental for the projects like Wikipedia or Linux). The authors of the
free content get protection from misuse of their works, and the users get
guarantees that no malevalent authors could harm them.
*Freedom of panorama* introduced: now it is allowed to make photos in any
public territory. The photographers are no more formally offenders, because
earlier one was not allowed to sell postcards with modern buildings without
the permission of the architect or his successors (despite the fact
wrongdoings of this kind were universal). Unfortunately, monuments are not
covered by the amendments.
It's allowed to publish and store *thesis synopses* in the electronic
format.
Libraries are allowed to store in the *electronic format* dilapidated works
and those scientific and educational works that were not republshed for
more the 10 years.
«The direct inclusion of the stipulations on the free licenses into the law
is a progressive step not only for Russia, but worldwide. There are no
specific articles on the free licenses in the other countries' laws, and
hence the licenses are still in the grey area there. Actually, the free
licenses eploit the archaic tercentenary system of the copyright, that
always protected the authors from the readers, for the opposite goal – to
protect the readers from the authors. Therefore, without direct regulation,
there is too vast judicial discretion, and the free licenses users are not
protected perfectly. In the Russian law there are no uncertainties like
that anymore. Up to the wording that covers the copyleft clauses as well,
that poorly fit the traditional laws.» — explained Wikimedia RU director
Vladimir Medeyko.
Members of Wikimedia RU worked fiddly on these and other amendments in the
Civil Code. Namely:
In 2009-2010 the numerous letters with the description of the problems and
possible solutions were sent to special State Duma committees.
In 2010-2011 the members of Wikimedia RU participated at sessions of the
expert groups of the Committee of culture and the Committee of information
policy and communications of the State Duma.
In april 2011 during the meeting with then Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev, the represenative of Wikimedia RU communicated the problems and
possible solutions to him.
In 2011-201 the experts from Wikimedia RU made part of the working group of
Minitry of Justice. Годах on the free licenses and related laws, and also
participated in commissions and other events organized by the Ministry of
Communications, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of
Culure, the Ministry of Education and Science, related to these amendments.
In 2012 the representatives of Wikimedia RU participated sessions of the
State Duma's working group on the intellectual property, attended to the
parliament hearings; in sessions of the Federation Council's on the
infromation society proceedings.
In 2010-2014 the members of Wikimedia RU participated more than 200
conferences, seminars, round tables, where thay explained problems and ways
to legalize the work.\
Hopefully, the foreign legislators will handle free licenses with the due
care, and the uncertainty will vanish.
--
Luis Villa
Deputy General Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext. 6810
*This message may be confidential or legally privileged. If you have
received it by accident, please delete it and let us know about the
mistake. As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal/ethical
reasons I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*
On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 8:14 AM, Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov <
dimitar.parvanov.dimitrov(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What happened?
> The consolidated text of the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) was released
> last week. [9] It contains chapters on IPR and e-commerce and rules on data
> protection. It talks a lot about Digital Rights Management, a circumvention
> prohibition thereof and a prohibition on software that can be used to
> circumvent DRM. It also has an article on IPR enforcement (Article 18),
> which foresees the seizure of property on alleged infringers, including
> blocking of bank accounts and assets. This sounds a lot like ACTA (I’d say
> about 80 percent of the text is identical). It is also intriguing, because
> we still have not harmonised copyright and enforcement rules in the EU,
> raising the question on what grounds the Commission is negotiating this
> with Canada.
> There’s also a so-called “follow the money” approach for pursuing
> infringers who knowingly violate copyright law. They can be asked to pay
> compensations which would include alleged lost profits.
>
> What comes next?
> The major question here is, if this treaty is out of scope for the
> European Commission. If it touches upon policies which are not the
> exclusive competence of the EU, it would have to be ratified by the
> European Parliament, the Council and the parliaments of the 28 Member
> States. If it falls within EU law an okay from the Parliament and Council
> would be enough.
> It is also important in light of the talks on a similar EU-US trade
> agreement (TTIP). The negotiation logic in free trade agreements is that if
> you offer something to Canada, you’ll have to offer at least the same
> conditions to the USA.
Is there any good commentary/summary elsewhere on the details of this? And
are any of the activist groups trying to organize around it?
Luis
--
Luis Villa
Deputy General Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext. 6810
*This message may be confidential or legally privileged. If you have
received it by accident, please delete it and let us know about the
mistake. As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal/ethical
reasons I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*
Hi all,
it’s been a frenzy and it ain’t over yet. New people who we have to work
with and a copyright reform proposal that is apparently coming within the
next 12 months.
A very busy Dimi
Wikimedia and the EU
September 2014 Report
tl;dr
The new Commissioner for Digital Economy & Society performed unconvincingly
in his European Parliament hearing but said he wants to produce a copyright
reform proposal in 6 months’ time. While the Commissioners are being
checked out by the members of parliament, some of their units are moving
offices - most notably for us the copyright unit is moving from DG MARKT to
DG CONNECT.
This and past reports: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor
ToC
1. EP Hearings: Commissioner for Digital Economy & Society Guenther
Oettinger
2. Restructuring the EC: Copyright unit moving from MARKT to CONNECT
3. CETA: Released text contains chapters on e-commerce and IPR
4. CJEU: Judgement on digitisation and access to works on libraries
5. Recommended reads
-----------------
-----------------
#EPhearings2014 #Oettinger #copyright
1. Hearing of Commissioner for Digital Economy & Society Guenther Oettinger
Why is this relevant?
One of the top priorities of the new President of the European Commission
will be reforming copyright and two Commissioners will be responsible for
this: Guenther Oettinger for Digital Economy & Society and Andrus Ansip for
the Digital Single Market. From the looks of it Oettinger’s DG will lead
the drafting while Ansip’s units will oversee the process.
What happened?
The hearing took place on Monday during a joint meeting of the EP
Committees on Culture and Education (CULT) and Industry, Research and
Energy (ITRE). [1] The expectations were that Oettinger, who has never
dealt with internet or digital issues and headed the Energy DG in the past
five year, will have some problems working himself into the new matter. For
the most part, it looked like he’s not as well prepared as he could have
been. He fumbled on questions like data protection and internet security
(where it became obvious that he doesn’t know the difference between social
networks and clouds), net neutrality (where he alternatively voiced support
for the EP version, the Commission one and then offered to explain his
position somewhere else) and free software (where he admitted he didn’t
understand the question). To be fair, he nailed some parts on “Right to be
forgotten” and “Data protection”, but the overall feeling was one of “hit
and miss” answers and that he lacked a general direction. Brief highlights
here: [2]
Good news is that he seemed most coherent on copyright. He said he will
work out a copyright reform proposal within the next six months. He talked
a lot about - and that is a standard Commission position - balancing online
access and authors’ rights.
Importantly for us, he underlined that borders shouldn’t be visible within
the EU and that this must include the digital world. The wording “I support
the protection of intellectual property rights, but content must be
available everywhere” hints he will seriously look into harmonising
exceptions and limitations. However he also mentioned that “in the middle
term states won’t relinquish own regulation”.
My take is that DG Connect might try to harmonise some of the exceptions
now and set a several decades long term for a single copyright title.
Similar long transitional periods are known in the EU from harmonisation of
driving licenses, for instance.
What comes next?
Oettinger makes the impression of a highly intelligent and a very
experienced Brussels politician who has all the skills it takes to see
through an own legislative proposal. The catch here is that he doesn't seem
to know what he wants because for the most part he still doesn't know what
he's talking about.
I still believe that he is a step forward from someone who at this point
five years ago already had his mind set on defending narrow IP business
interests. Let’s consider him a blank page that we can we still write on.
Next Monday the other “digital” Commissioner - Andrus Ansip from Estonia –
who will be overseeing the digital single market will be heard.[3]
After the hearings are over and people have settled in their new offices
and gotten to know their teams we'll be release our Position Paper on EU
Copyright to welcome our new partners from the Commission. [4] We're
expecting a few more co-signatories in the coming days.
I now have heard from at least three independent sources (Commission and
Parliament) that the new reform proposal will be done within a year and
that they might skip publishing a white paper on the topic first.
-----------------
-----------------
#TeamJuncker #POTEC
2. Copyright Unit Moving from MARKT to CONNECT
Why is this relevant?
This is the unit that will be in charge of the copyright reform, proposal.
What happened?
So far the entire Intellectual Property Directory, including units on
industrial property, copyright and counterfeiting & priacy, was housed in
DG MARKT (Internal Market Directorate). [5] It has been announced that the
copyright unit will be moving to the Digital Economy & Society DG. [6] The
industrial property unit will be staying at MARKT and no one knows yet
(including the people working there themselves who I talked to) if the
counterfeiting unit is moving as well.
What comes next?
Packing and unpacking boxes. But seriously, I anticipate two changes:
A) Now that copyright will be handle with a DG whose top priority isn’t the
Internal Market alone, non-monetary arguments should gain more weight
B) Copyright will always remain an inter-disciplinary field, but the
competencies seem to be very well defined in this Commission. Last time
around we had three Commissioners responsible. Now we have Oettinger
drafting and Vice-President Ansip overseeing him.
For the roles of the new DGs and their Commissioner see also the mission
statements for Ansip [7] and Oettinger [8].
-----------------
-----------------
#CETA #IPR
3. Released EU-Canada trade agreement text contains chapters on e-commerce
and IPR
Why is this relevant?
International agreements can contain chapters on intellectual property
rights. These may set standards or enshrine rules that later become
virtually untouchable. Since the negotiations are usually conducted in
secret, special attention is required when documents are released, as the
time for reaction is limited.
The massive outcry against treaties like ACTA has
Text released, don't know if it is out of scope.
contains chapters on e-commerce and IPR
rules on data protection
negotiation logic in free trade is that: "if you offer something in CETA
you have to offer at least the same in TTIP"
What happened?
The consolidated text of the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) was released
last week. [9] It contains chapters on IPR and e-commerce and rules on data
protection. It talks a lot about Digital Rights Management, a circumvention
prohibition thereof and a prohibition on software that can be used to
circumvent DRM. It also has an article on IPR enforcement (Article 18),
which foresees the seizure of property on alleged infringers, including
blocking of bank accounts and assets. This sounds a lot like ACTA (I’d say
about 80 percent of the text is identical). It is also intriguing, because
we still have not harmonised copyright and enforcement rules in the EU,
raising the question on what grounds the Commission is negotiating this
with Canada.
There’s also a so-called “follow the money” approach for pursuing
infringers who knowingly violate copyright law. They can be asked to pay
compensations which would include alleged lost profits.
What comes next?
The major question here is, if this treaty is out of scope for the European
Commission. If it touches upon policies which are not the exclusive
competence of the EU, it would have to be ratified by the European
Parliament, the Council and the parliaments of the 28 Member States. If it
falls within EU law an okay from the Parliament and Council would be
enough.
It is also important in light of the talks on a similar EU-US trade
agreement (TTIP). The negotiation logic in free trade agreements is that if
you offer something to Canada, you’ll have to offer at least the same
conditions to the USA.
-----------------
-----------------
#digitisation #CJEU
4. CJEU to judge on digitisation and access to works on libraries
Why is this relevant?
Digitisation and access to knowledge is at the core of what we’re doing.
What happened?
A court case between a German publisher and the library of the Technical
University of Darmstadt was referred to the Court of Justice of the
European Union in Luxembourg. The issue was that the library had digitised
a book and was offering its readers on-premises terminals that gave them
the possibility to print them out or even copy them to a USB stick.
According to German law, the library wouldn’t be allowed to offer
simultaneous access to more readers than the copies it has actually
acquired. The case with printing and copying onto USB stick is however not
clarified and was therefore passed on to the EU court.
The court judged [10] that (a) the library may digitise and offer such
copies to its readers only if there is no reasonable offer by the publisher
and that (b) the library may very well digitise books for preservation and
for offering them to its readers on-site. Lastly, it proclaimed that (c)
readers might under some circumstances make private copies of books, not
distinguishing between hard and digital version here. The user will have to
find appropriate copyright exceptions and limitations for doing so, which
are not of the library’s concern.
Further reading: [11] [12]
What comes next?
The German Federal Court must now interpret the judgement of the CJEU and
rule on the case.
-----------------
-----------------
#IT2014EU
5. The Italian Presidency and some relevant texts
Here are some interesting texts on IPR issues produced during the Italian
Presidency of the Council. There is no particularly pressing issue for us
here yet, so consider this rather a recommendation than a must.
Jeremy Rifkin: Digital Europe - The Rise of the Internet of Things and the
Integration of the single Market [13]
Description: Talks about how the “sharing economy” will turn the entire
industry upside-down and touches upon pretty much every hot internet issue
while discussing it.
Italian Presidency Working Paper on Intellectual Property Rights
Enforcement [14]
Description: Prefer not to say anything here
-----------------
-----------------
[1]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20140929-14…
[2]
http://www.vieuws.eu/ict/5-toughest-questions-faced-gunther-oettinger-digit…
[3]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20141006-18…
[4]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Position_Paper_on_EU_Copyright
[5]http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/internal_market/departments/index_en.htm
[6]http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-984_en.htm
[7]http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker-commission/docs/ansip_en.pdf
[8]http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker-commission/docs/oettinger_en.pdf
[9]http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2014/september/tradoc_152806.pdf
[10]
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=157511&pageI…
[11]
http://ipkitten.blogspot.be/2014/02/cjeu-to-decide-on-present-and-future-of…
[12]
http://www.hlmediacomms.com/2014/09/18/cjeu-renders-judgment-on-digitizing-…
[13]
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-agenda/files/discussions/…
[14]
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/srv?l=EN&f=ST%2013076%202014%20INIT