Publicpolicy November 2014

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18 participants
13 discussions

[Advocacy Advisors] That Google vote today
by James Heald 28 Nov '14

28 Nov '14

I appreciate that it was of symbolic value only, and the text is exhortative only, but Dimi and Karl, could you give us a bit of background on the Google vote today. It's always a bit difficult for outsiders to understand what's going on, who's voted for what and why, because even the recorded roll-count votes aren't published for a couple of days, and without really following the dossier it takes a lot of work to unpack which amendment is which, and which groups went which way over it. The crude picture I've got from tweets here and there is that there was an amendment to take out the break-up language from the resolution, with (I think) the Liberals and some national delegations critical of the measure, and the Greens seeing it as a distraction; or worse, as a Trojan horse to force Google to have to index links even if it had to pay for the privilege. But these amendments were voted down roughly 3-to-1 -- presumably by other groups who hadn't written them. Both the Economist and policy tank EPIC had some things to say about why it doesn't appear to make that much sense http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21635000-european-moves-against-googl… http://www.epicenternetwork.eu/briefings/unbundling-search-engines/ Even if Google's market share is massive, search is a very contestable market, and there's very little consumer lock-in. Google's Android can arguably be said to be pro-competitive, a defensive effort that made sense for Google, to prevent its core offerings being sidelined at the Operating System level. So why did this motion get so many MEPs to pile in with their support? Which were the groups that pushed it, and why? And if, as some are saying, this is the publishers showing their legislative power with a warning shot against those who seek a more liberalised downstream copyright environment, is that analysis right; and does it suggest that the forces of restriction have a strong hold on a large swathe of MEPs ? I'd be interested to know the team's analysis. -- James.

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Re: [Advocacy Advisors] Welcome Karl, our new Weasel in Brussels
by Jan Weisensee 28 Nov '14

28 Nov '14

Dear Karl, all Thanks for your support and welcome aboard the EU spaceship! As said during the netpolitics beer, it's great to have you over! :)) Regards Jan Sent from cell phone. Apologies for typos and brevity. Am 24.11.2014 14:47 schrieb Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov <dimitar.parvanov.dimitrov(a)gmail.com>: > > Hello, everybody! > > I am happy to report that as of this month my loneliness in Brussels has effectively been cured. Not only did we found Wikimedia Belgium [1][2], but we now also have a second permanent Weasel in Brussels! Please meet Karl from Sweden (signed up to this list). > > Karl [3][4] is a member of Wikimedia Sverige and has been has been sitting in the Swedish National Assembly for 8 years representing the County of Stockholm district. After being member of the Swedish parliament for two terms he decided he wants to deal with copyright issues on a more international scale. He thus contacted us and moved permanently to Brussels to help out with our EU policy efforts. > > I am very glad to have him on board, not only because of expertise, political savoir-faire and network, but also because him being here reduces the risk of me succumbing to cabin fever :) > > I hope you join me in welcoming him! > > Have a wonderful week, everyone! > > Dimi > > [1]https://be.wikimedia.org/wiki/Press_release_founding_Wikimedia_Belgium > [2]https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Founding_event_of_Wikimedia_B… > [3]https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Sigfrid > [4]https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/ledamoter-partier/Hitta-ledamot/Ledamoter/Sigfrid-Karl-0469626830920/ >

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[Advocacy Advisors] EU Policy Monitoring Report - November
by Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov 27 Nov '14

27 Nov '14

Wikimedia and the EU November 2014 Report tl;dr To be extra popular, we’re keeping it rather short. Some data protection and plenty of copyright. This and past reports: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor ToC 1. The Google Spain Case and the “Right to be Forgotten” 2. European Commission Work Programme 2015 3. Copyright Reform Perspectives: Directive or Regulation and what about France & Belgium? 4. Freedom of Panorama/Wikimedia in the media ----------------- ----------------- #RTBF #GoogleSpain 1. The Google Spain Case and the “Right to be Forgotten” Why is this relevant? Should people have the right to demand the removal of certain search results when their name is searched? The issue affects primarily search engines, who may have to deal with a huge number of removal requests, but delinking also cuts off some of the traffic to the websites that host the source information. Already, a number of articles have been delinked from Wikimedia based on name searches. What happened? After the CJEU in May decided [1] that a Spanish citizen had the right to have certain search results removed, Google launched a series of seminars to shed light on the topic [2]. The final one took place on November 4 in Brussels. Invited speakers from the EU Commission took a strong position in favour of the principles established by the CJEU through its decision, which indicates that this is an order that they want to preserve in the now negotiated Data Protection Regulation. Several Member States, however are beginning to question whether the balance has tipped too far in favour of data protection on the expense of free speech and freedom of information. What comes next? The European Parliament has finished its first reading of the Commission's proposal. It is now up to the Council to come to a decision in its first reading. The process seems stalled in the so-called trialogue (informal talks between the Commission, the Parliament and the Council) and even a revised proposal by the Commission is being talked about recently. What is less well understood by the general public is that the so-called “right to be forgotten” actually already legally exists (although not bearing that name) in Europe due to the 1995 Data Protection Regulation. [3] The current court decision is based on this piece of legislation. The newly proposed text [4] (see amendment 27) revises this principle tackling many of the currently discussed problems, but is paradoxically being attacked by the most vocal critics of the court decision in the Google Spain case. ----------------- ----------------- #TeamJuncker 2. European Commission Work Programme 2015 Why is this relevant? What is to be realistically expected in the next 12 months in Brussels. This is crucial to taking the right steps to ensure our message continues to be heard. What happened? The European Commission published (well, leaked) its draft work programme for 2015 [5]. It includes a Digital Single Market package schedules for the second quarter and additionally explicitly states that there is to be a proposal on copyright reform. Other net politics topics include the E-Privacy Directive, TTIP and perhaps an amendment to the package that contains the net neutrality provisions. Almost simultaneously, Vice-President Ansip stated during his speech at the Strasbourg plenary [6] that he is committed to reforming and harmonising copyright and to remove geoblocking. What comes next? Realistically, we should expect to see a reform proposal before summer 2015. ----------------- ----------------- #fixcopyright #AskAnsip 3.Copyright Reform Perspectives: Directive or Regulation and what about France? And Belgium? Why is this relevant? Which steps will the Commission take and how will European Parliament and the Member States react to it. Only if we know what will most likely come can we include Freedom of Panorama in the right packages. Knowing what is going on on all levels guarantees us a competitive advantage when talking to decision-makers. What happened? There are two ways the European Commission might go about reforming copyright. Updating the 2001 Information Society Directive [7] or proposing a Regulation. [8] A Regulation in the European Union is an immediately enforceable law in all member states. By contrast, a Directive would have to be adopted by each country first. There is even a third option, which would be to have a Regulation and a Directive at the same time, thus splitting the more controversial things off and fully harmonising everything else. In the meanwhile the French government seems to have ran itself into a contradiction. While the Minister of Culture and Communications clearly stated that France is critical of any copyright reform [9], her government seemingly decided to include Freedom of Panorama in the new Open Data law discussion [10]. This is remarkable, because what we call Freedom of Panorama is essentially part of the 2001 Copyright Directive, thus introducing it would be copyright reform. Wikimédia France will follow-up on the procedures. In Belgium, the President of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, who hosted the Wikimedia Belgium founding event [11][12] committed himself to propose a Freedom of Panorama amendment to the house at the reception. Concrete talks will follow led by Wikimedia Belgium. What comes next? Making sure that Freedom of Panorama is at least seriously discussed in the countries that don’t have it yet, will help us making our case in front the European Commission. They are much more likely to go for stuff that won’t be immediately blocked by Member States. Simultaneously knowing what’s going on both at the European and the national levels puts us in an advantageous argumentative position. ----------------- ----------------- Why is this relevant? Trying to keep a very exotic topic like Freedom of Panorama afloat in a global copyright debate can be challenging. Finding a stories and pictures that are geared toward the media, work with the public and can easily be picked up by decision makers is necessary. What happened? BXL - EU Observer on Freedom of Panorama: http://euobserver.com/justice/126375 BE - Express on Freedom of Panorama: http://www.express.be/sectors/nl/interactive/waarom-u-weinig-fotos-van-het-… Dutch EE - Estonian Public Television on Copyright Reform and VP Ansip: http://uudised.err.ee/v/eesti/615b66d7-1a5f-42a3-be9b-f64f5333d701 Parts in English ES - Spanish National Radio on Freedom of Panorama: http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/las-mananas-de-rne/mananas-rne-segunda-h… http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/esto-me-suena-las-tardes-del-ciudadano-g… Spanish What comes next? More interviews (possibly with TAZ from Germany next) and a Freedom of Panorama blacked-out images exhibition inside the European Parliament in 2015. ----------------- ----------------- [1]http://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?num=C-131/12 [2] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lEaN2H2sFJHFHNm07exsg8eR6ojhLVrmDHUQ29o… [3] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31995L0046:en:H… [4] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2… [5]https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CWP-2015-en.pdf [6] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/plenary/video?debate=1417029457834 [7]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Directive [8] https://netzpolitik.org/2014/ein-einheitliches-urheberrecht-fuer-europa-fue… [9] www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/Presse/Discours/Discours-de-Fleur-Pellerin… [10] http://contribuez.cnnumerique.fr/debat/open-data-une-d%C3%A9mocratie-plus-o… [11] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Founding_event_of_Wikimedia_Bel… [12]https://be.wikimedia.org/wiki/Press_release_founding_Wikimedia_Belgium

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[Advocacy Advisors] Fwd: Mozilla + Wikimedia Fellows and Community
by Yana Welinder 26 Nov '14

26 Nov '14

Hey all, Mozilla Advocacy is looking for tech fellows to work on policy. This may be of interest to some folks on this list. The host orgs this year are ACLU, Amnesty, Free Press, OTI, and PK, but we are talking with Mozilla about potential collaboration. Best, Yana ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Hannah Kane <hannah(a)mozillafoundation.org> Date: Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 10:07 AM Subject: Re: Mozilla + Wikimedia Fellows and Community To: Yana Welinder <ywelinder(a)wikimedia.org> Cc: Dave Steer <daves(a)mozillafoundation.org>, Stephen LaPorte < slaporte(a)wikimedia.org>, Chris Riley <criley(a)mozilla.com> Hi Yana and Stephen, Nice to meet you. I'm attaching the one-pager as a PDF, in case that's useful, and have included the content below my signature as well. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks so much! Hannah -- Hannah Kane Program Manager, Engagement Mozilla Foundation --------------- *Mozilla Advocacy introduces the Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellows Program* The Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellows <http://advocacy.mozilla.org> program is an initiative designed to find emerging leaders who have a passion for Internet policy and advocacy. Each year, we will select a group of developers, technologists, hackers and data crunchers to spend 10 months working as a Fellow embedded in our host organizations. The Washington Post recently called the program a way to give “*nonprofits and the government an injection of tech talent” with a “broader aim [of developing] a pipeline, one that tells civic-minded engineers there’s an alternative to Silicon Valley*.” *The 2015 Fellowship: 10 months of paid project work to protect the Web* - *Protecting a free and open Internet:* Make real impact on projects creating a healthier Web through technology development, community organizing, educational programs and more. - *Informing policy discussions at leading non-profits: *Become embedded in the Internet policy discussions at our host organizations, serving as advisors and ambassadors for an open Web. - *A diversity of talent: *Bring together emerging leaders who have a track record of success in technology, organizing and education. *Our 2015 Host Organizations:* - The American Civil Liberties Union <https://www.aclu.org/> - Amnesty International <http://amnesty.org/> - Free Press <http://www.freepress.net/> - Open Technology Institute <http://www.newamerica.org/oti/> - Public Knowledge <https://www.publicknowledge.org/> *Who Should Apply* The Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellows program is for people with a passion for protecting a free and open Web. This includes engineers and technologists, activists and community organizers, and educators and mentors. We are an inclusive program and we seek to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. Fellows will receive a slate of stipends and benefits to ensure the experience is a transformative one. The standard fellowship offers a stipend of $60,000 over 10 months plus supplements for travel, housing, child care, health insurance, moving expenses, and helps pay for research/equipment and books. *Apply to be a Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellow at mozilla.org/advocacy <http://mozilla.org/advocacy>.* The deadline to apply is December 31, 2014. -- Yana Welinder Senior Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation 415.839.6885 ext. 6867 @yanatweets <https://twitter.com/yanatweets> NOTICE: 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. In other words, IANYL <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IANAL>. For more on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.

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[Advocacy Advisors] Welcome Karl, our new Weasel in Brussels
by Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov 24 Nov '14

24 Nov '14

Hello, everybody! I am happy to report that as of this month my loneliness in Brussels has effectively been cured. Not only did we found Wikimedia Belgium [1][2], but we now also have a second permanent Weasel in Brussels! Please meet Karl from Sweden (signed up to this list). Karl [3][4] is a member of Wikimedia Sverige and has been has been sitting in the Swedish National Assembly for 8 years representing the County of Stockholm district. After being member of the Swedish parliament for two terms he decided he wants to deal with copyright issues on a more international scale. He thus contacted us and moved permanently to Brussels to help out with our EU policy efforts. I am very glad to have him on board, not only because of expertise, political savoir-faire and network, but also because him being here reduces the risk of me succumbing to cabin fever :) I hope you join me in welcoming him! Have a wonderful week, everyone! Dimi [1]https://be.wikimedia.org/wiki/Press_release_founding_Wikimedia_Belgium [2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Founding_event_of_Wikimedia_Bel… [3]https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Sigfrid [4] https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/ledamoter-partier/Hitta-ledamot/Ledamoter/Sigfr…

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[Advocacy Advisors] Questions to the European Commission
by Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov 19 Nov '14

19 Nov '14

Hi all, next week I am having three meetings in the European Commission lined up: copyright unit, counterfeiting&piracy unit and the cabinet of Jean-Claude Juncker. The main reason I was scheduled is our position paper on EU copyright reform, which will, presumably, also be the main focus of the conversation. I want to ask this group if there are any specific questions you'd like me to ask? Any concrete examples or issues you'd like raised? Of course, I can't promise I'll get the chance to ask everything, but I can try. Also, chances are that someone here has much better questions than me :) Cheers, Dimi

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[Advocacy Advisors] Questions on Economic Contribution of Public Domain and Open Licensing
by Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov 14 Nov '14

14 Nov '14

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

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[Advocacy Advisors] Wikimedia UK response to new UK orphan works rules
by Stevie Benton 07 Nov '14

07 Nov '14

Hello everyone, Last week the UK's Intellectual Property Office issued new guidance on the use of orphan works <https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-opens-access-to-91-million-orphan-wor…> . Wikimedia UK has just published its response to the new guidance. You can read the blog post here <https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2014/11/response-to-the-new-ipo-orphan-works-…> or view the copy as text below. Thank you, Stevie *Response to the new IPO orphan works licensing scheme* The UK’s Intellectual Property Office <https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/intellectual-property-office> last week announced the launch of a new orphan works licensing scheme <https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-opens-access-to-91-million-orphan-wor…> . This allows individuals and institutions wishing to use a work of intellectual property where the rights holder cannot be identified to apply for a licence from the IPO. Licences are awarded where the IPO is satisfied that the applicant conducted a “diligent” search for the rights holder, and they have paid a licensing and administration fee. This scheme brings forward little that is new. The rule allowing re-use after diligent search has been part of copyright law in the UK for many years. The primary purpose of the new licences seems to be to provide greater certainty to re-users that the searches they have undertaken are sufficiently extensive to guarantee legal protection should the copyright owner come forward. Searches have to be exceptionally comprehensive before the Intellectual Property Office will certify them as ‘diligent’ and although there are new guidelines which will provide greater clarity for cultural institutions, the imposition of an official fee is concerning. Even with this new scheme in place orphan works can still not be easily used by the Wikimedia projects and the volunteers who write and curate them. A real solution to the orphan works problem must await a more radical approach that goes beyond both this and the existing EU Orphan Works Directive <http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/orphan_works/index_en.htm>. We believe that this should be addressed as part of a more far-reaching review of copyright as a whole, at a national and European level. For example, a simple reduction in copyright terms would instantly make many works which are currently orphaned available for reuse. You can see the recent Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU position paper on copyright reform – of which we are a signatory – here <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Position_Paper_on_EU_Copyright>. -- Stevie Benton Head of External Relations Wikimedia UK +44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173 @StevieBenton Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*

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[Advocacy Advisors] Fwd: [open-policy-network] Elsevier & Dutch universities in a stand-off
by Dimitar Dimitrov 05 Nov '14

05 Nov '14

FYI ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: LIBLICENSE <liblicense(a)gmail.com> Date: Tue, Nov 4, 2014 at 6:11 PM Subject: Elsevier & Dutch universities in a stand-off To: LIBLICENSE-L(a)listserv.crl.edu From: Jos Damen <josephcmdamen(a)gmail.com> Date: Tue, Nov 4, 2014 at 11:58 AM "Negotiations between Elsevier and universities failed (PRESS RELEASE VSNU, 4 November 2014) Universities want to move to Open Access publications Negotiations between the Dutch universities and publishing company Elsevier on subscription fees and Open Access have ground to a halt. In line with the policy pursued by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the universities want academic publications to be freely accessible. To that end, agreements will have to be made with the publishers. The proposal presented by Elsevier last week totally fails to address this inevitable change. The universities hope that Elsevier will submit an amended proposal. ‘From now on we will inform our researchers about the consequences of this deadlock’, says Gerard Meijer, president of Radboud University Nijmegen and chief negotiator on behalf of the VSNU." More: http://www.vsnu.nl/news/newsitem/11-negotiations-between-elsevier-and-unive… -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Open Policy Network" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to open-policy-network+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to open-policy-network(a)googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/open-policy-network. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- Dimitar Dimitrov Wikimedian in Brussels mobile: +32497720374 landline: +32 2 540 2483 Rue du Trône 51 Troonstraat *Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment. Help us with it in the EU! <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_Policy>* www.wikimedia.org

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[Advocacy Advisors] Article on Freedom of Panorama in the Brussels Press
by Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov 04 Nov '14

04 Nov '14

Hello everybody, I can't remember an article where I have been misquoted so many times, but despite this and several factual imprecisions, I still think that such an article in a media read predominantly by EU bureaucrats is helpful. [1] Especially ahead of several meetings with the European Commission next week. It also goes to show that we need to train our reporters, as well. Talking to them once is not enough. Very specific topics and they get hung up on the funny details, rather than the specific legal nuances. Cheers, Dimi [1]http://euobserver.com/justice/126375

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