[Advocacy Advisors] EU Policy Monitoring Report - July

Wed Jul 31 13:51:52 UTC 2013

Hello, Wikimedians!

As expected, lots of busy bees have been flying around Brussels in July
trying to finish off things before the summer break. This made it a rather
long read, but I am sure there are worse things to have on your tablet on
the beach :). Anyway, enjoy the summer (or winter if you’re way south) and
see you in Hong Kong or back here in a month!

Dimi

EU Policy on Meta: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy

tl;dr

>From a Wikimedian’s perspective, the most significant events were the
signing of two open letters as a reaction to PRISM (by WMF and WMDE) and
the Committee vote on the Collective Rights Management Directive. This is
the Directive that will decide whether it will be legal for musicians to
donate single pieces of music to our projects.

ToC

1. Prism and Data Protection - Reactions and Wikimedia actions

2. Collective Rights Management Directive - Committee vote passes

3. Licences for Europe - Inside the work groups

4. Net Neutrality - Leaked draft

5. Notice and Takedown - And now what?

6. Meet us in Hong Kong!

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 #PRISM #EUdataP

1. Prism and Data Protection - Reactions and Wikimedia actions

Why is this relevant?

As stated elsewhere, rights of privacy are necessary for intellectual
freedom [1]. As a major global information provider we are part of the
“bigger” picture.

What happened?

As announced, the Wikimedia Foundation has signed a letter urging the US
government for more transparency as a reaction to recent surveillance
debates. [2] Other signatories include Mozilla, Reporters Without Borders
and companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Wikimedia Deutschland
has signed an open letter too, to “ensure respect for the fundamental right
to privacy and informational self-determination”. [3] Other signatories are
the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Creative Commons Deutschland,
Transparency International and Greenpeace. Meanwhile, there is considerable
debate in Brussels on whether Snowden could and should be nominated for the
Sakharov (freedom of thought award by European Parliament) and Nobel
prizes.

What comes next?

The Snowden case has significantly changed the landscape for the current
and future data protection and internet privacy regulations. It would be
wise to think about whether we (the Wikimedia movement) have or should have
clear positions on these topics in the future, or, whether it would be
wiser stay out of it for the most part.

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#CRM

2. Collective Rights Management Directive - European Parliament Committee
Vote Passes

Why is this relevant?

A new Directive aiming to harmonise the rules on collective rights
management in the EU is in the making (Full name: Collective management of
copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in
musical works for online uses in the internal market). Currently, many
artists find it legally impossible to release single pieces of music under
free licenses, as collecting societies have “all or nothing”-clauses.
Additionally, in many Member States collecting societies are state-approved
monopolies, leaving no room for free choice. The current proposal might
make it possible for musicians to release even individual pieces of music
under a free licence.

What happened?

The original Commission proposal did not include the possibility for
authors to release individual works under free licenses. In the European
Parliament, Rapporteur for the lead Committee (Legal Affairs) Marielle
Gallo (EPP, FR) proposed [4] to include such an option in her draft. This
change was lost in a compromise agreement within the committee before the
the vote. However, an amendment by Christian Engström (Greens, SE) was
somewhat surprisingly accepted that will most likely allow free licensing
for individual works. [5]

What comes next?

The Legal Affairs Committee’s version is expected to be voted in the
parliament in a single reading plenary session in October. Then it will
move on to the Council, where it might again be changed. In the meantime,
it would be helpful to canvass the Member States’ (Permanent
Representatives) positions so we get a clearer picture on whether the
Engström amendment is at risk. The first possible review date for the
Permanent Representatives is the 2nd December.

Further links:

Procedure file on the CRM Directive [6]

General review of the Directive [7]

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#L4E

3.Licences for Europe - Inside the work groups

Why is this relevant?

This is a consultation process by the European Commission on licensing of
digital content. It is seen as part of a larger initiative to completely
overhaul copyright, although there have been voices questioning the
seriousness of such an intention. Generally speaking, this dialogue must be
seen in the context of the Commission currently bargaining the agenda for a
future Copyright reform - which aspects will we be on the table in the next
few years.

What happened?

At the mid-term plenary session the work done so far in the work groups has
been presented. The most relevant group for us - User Generated Content -
has seen the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) leave the process and
being replaced by a group that claims to represent User Generated projects,
but no one has heard of.

This is currently forcing all remaining civil society organisation in the
work group to consider whether they should stay on board of a “pseudo”
discussion. Content-wise, the talk dominated by industry organisations is
going toward created more licensing for user-generated content, on top of
what we already have.

What comes next?

As Wikimedia’s core issue is user-generated content and the Commission is
looking for new civil society partners to join the consultation, it would
be useful to decide until September whether we want to participate or stay
out due to the fact that we can’t gain (almost) anything and the
credibility of the process has taken numerous hits.

Further links:

We have a file on Licences for Europe on Meta [8]

The European Commission Page [9]

The European Consumer Organisation’s letter to Commissioner Barnier [10]

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#netneutrality

4. Network Neutrality - Leaked draft

Why is this relevant?

Our mission is to disseminate Free Knowledge globally and we do so through
our projects (internet websites). How people’s access to them is regulated
is fundamental to us.

What happened?

After years upon years of flip-flopping on the issue, Digital Commissioner
Neelie Kroes finally seemed resolute on a coherent protection of the
neutrality of the internet. [11] However, a leaked working draft of
interservice consultation process [12] goes in a completely different
direction. According to the document it would be possible for website
operators to pay internet service providers to guarantee that their sites
load faster (or others are throttled).

What comes next?

An official legislative proposal is due to be published by the Commission
by the end of the year.

Further links:

We have a Network Neutrality file on Meta that can use your help! [13]

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#NnT

5. Notice and Takedown - And now what?

Why is this relevant?

Notice and Takedown procedures define legally who is responsible for
(allegedly) unlawful content online and how to handle such cases in
practice.  It is very likely that the questions of liability will be
defined or refined if it comes to a Directive.

What happened?

It is presently unclear whether this Commission will go ahead and propose a
Takedown and Notice Directive. Regardless of that development, a
Recommendation (non-binding) is in the making and expected by the end of
the year. Meanwhile, a group of 6 MEPs has released a letter [14] urging
Commissioner Barnier to go ahead a publish a draft Directive and not hide
the obviously heated discussions by shifting focus to a Recommendation.

What comes next?

There is not enough information for the moment to know what will be
proposed and when. However, if a Recommendation is made, there is no way to
change it in Parliament and it is up to each Member State whether they want
to implement it or not.

Further links:

We have a Notice and Takedown file on Meta, which needs your help [15]

A good overview of the topic so far by IPtegrity.com [16]

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#Wikimania

7. Meet us in Hong Kong!

Me (Dimi, a.k.a. Dimitar Dimitrov) and Niko (Nikolas Becker, WMDE Board)
will be in Hong Kong to present the EU Policy initiative and the newly
founded Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU. Meet us during the Pre-Conference
on Thursday (8th) from 12-15 for an introduction and see our presentation
titled “Hacking Brussels” on Sunday (11th) in room TU201 [17].  Also, chat
us up wherever you see us!

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Linkography:

[1]
http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=interpretations&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=132904

[2] https://www.cdt.org/files/pdfs/weneedtoknow-transparency-letter.pdf

[3]http://www.stopsurveillance.org/

[4]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/commissions/juri/projet_rapport/2013/510562/JURI_PR(2013)510562_EN.doc(esp.
amendment 36)

[5]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fNONSGML%2bCOMPARL%2bPE-513.141%2b01%2bDOC%2bPDF%2bV0%2f%2fEN(esp.
amendments 252 and 263)

[6]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2012/0180%28COD%29

[7]
http://kluwercopyrightblog.com/2012/07/24/proposal-for-a-directive-on-collective-rights-management-and-some-multi-territorial-licensing-part-ii/

[8]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor/L4e

[9]http://ec.europa.eu/licences-for-europe-dialogue/en/content/about-site

[10]http://blog.quintarelli.it/files/2013-00138-01-e.pdf

[11]https://twitter.com/NeelieKroesEU/statuses/340020753510563840

[12]https://netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/CONSOLIDATED-DRAFT-for-ISC-070713.pdf

[13]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor/NN

[14]
http://ameliaandersdotter.eu/sites/default/files/letter_commissioner_barnier_notice_and_takedown.pdf

[15]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor/NnT

[16]
http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php/ipred/867-will-the-eu-act-on-notice-and-action

[17]https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Schedule
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