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.
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/
>
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
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>.
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…
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
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
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.*
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…
--
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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
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