Publicpolicy July 2014

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18 participants
27 discussions

[Advocacy Advisors] Letter to SUBTEL in Chile
by Yana Welinder 24 Jul '14

24 Jul '14

Hi all, A few months ago, the Chilean Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones (SUBTEL) ordered certain carriers to stop selling data bundles that waive the fees for accessing social media sites. A few news outlets reported that this order prohibits Wikipedia Zero in Chile.[1] But after consulting with local advocates, we believe that the SUBTEL order is not clear on that point. Indeed, when Marco Correa of Wikimedia Chile asked this question to Subsecretary Huichalaf via Twitter, Huichalaf responded somewhat ambiguously that there is not a service like Wikipedia Zero in Chile and the order applies to "regulated companies" (presumably not Wikipedia Zero).[2] I wanted to let you know that we are preparing a letter to SUBTEL together with Wikimedia Chile to ask SUBTEL to clarify that its order does not prohibit Wikipedia Zero in Chile. Our plan is to submit the letter next week. I'll share a copy of the letter and continue keeping this list updated. Please let me know if you have any thoughts about this. Best, Yana [1] Quartz ( http://qz.com/215064/when-net-neutrality-backfires-chile-just-killed-free-a… ); TechPresident ( http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/25090/face-chile-net-neutrality-v-human… ); Pando ( http://pando.com/2014/05/30/chile-should-be-commended-for-taking-away-faceb… ); TechDirt ( https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140603/05442127439/chile-bans-free-deli… ). [2] https://twitter.com/huichalaf/status/473310511711682560 -- Yana Welinder 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. 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] Wibe | Surf Wikipedia with the Power of YouTube
by Ankit Agrawal 21 Jul '14

21 Jul '14

Hi, I am Akshit (Co-Founder of Wibe), we have made a Chrome Extension by which anyone will be able to watch relevant YouTube videos corresponding to the Wiki Article they are reading. It is the deadly combination of Wikipedia and YouTube, it can really become a great new feature of Wikipedia. We developed it to solve our problem of switching to YouTube from Wiki to understand a particular thing. I would be very thankful if you guys please try and review it. Then if you like Wibe, consider it to integrate as a functionality in Wikipedia for some days so that user can use and review this new feature. *Website*: http://www.letswibe.com *Extension*: http://goo.gl/EiFG9t *Demo Video*: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98uDPo7ZjVI Install the Extension and then try out " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About" page to see how it changes the original wiki page by integrating relevant videos from YouTube. Cheers, Akshit Agarwal (Co-Founder, Wibe) akshit.jiit(a)gmail.com +91 8447136882 +91 8447735016

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[Advocacy Advisors] White Paper on Copyright postponed
by Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov 17 Jul '14

17 Jul '14

Hello all, The White Paper on copyright, that was supposed to be published this month, is now postponed at least until September. The reason for this is that DG Connect and DG Research found the paper "not ambitious enough" and are pushing for a clear exception on text and data mining. DG Markt (the one's that are writing it) generally believe that everything should be licensed, as a matter of principle. Interestingly enough, according to this newspaper article (The European Voice is something like a village news tabloid for Brussels' EU folks) [1], one of the debating points is Freedom of Panorama. Barnier, the current Commissioner for the Internal Market, apparently doesn't see the need to harmonise this exception, as "it can be resolved if member states apply existing rules and exemptions." It is interesting to see this reply to FoP problems. While this might be legally true, my usual counter-argument in such situations is that different implementations of the current Directive result in an unmanageable maze of rules across the EU leading to legal insecurity for individuals and projects alike. (And if it needs to be spelled out: legal insecurity=bad for business and creativity.) We have two studies on Freedom of Panorama across the EU - one by a German law firm and the other one by a Bulgarian university - and the they interpret current implementation of the Directive in sometimes very different ways. This is really helpful in supporting our "legal insecurity" argument, whenever someone counters the Atomium/EP building example. It would be good to publish them officially soon. One of them needs to be translated from German to English [2] The other one [3] needs some editing to finalise the wikification (especially adding the footnotes). If you can help me with either, please do! Cheers, Dimi [1] http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/barnier-forced-to-delay-copyright-road… [2]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Studies/FoP1/ [3]http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=EU_policy/Studies/FoP2/

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[Advocacy Advisors] European Commission's PSI Guidelines
by Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov 17 Jul '14

17 Jul '14

Dear list, I am just returning from a PSI roundtable and workshop <http://psialliance.info/documents/PSIAllianceAgenda2Jul2014DRAFT.pdf> here in Brussels where Szymon Lewandowski from DG CONNECT <http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/connect/en/content/open-data-policy-and-public-sect…> talked about the guidelines for the re-use of public sector information to be released by the European Commission. *Background* Back in November 2013, me and Mathias from WMDE attended (see second article <http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2013-December/129015.html>) a public hearing on the matter of implementing the revised Public Sector Information Directive to include re-use permissions. It was organised by DG CONNECT in Luxembourg, as many public sector bodies had signalled having a hard time understanding what needs to be done. Together with LAPSI <http://www.lapsi-project.eu/> and CreativeCommons we were pushing the following points: - No NC restrictions (distributing our brochure <http://www.wikimedia.de/images/1/15/CC-NC_Leitfaden_2013_engl.pdf>) - Free of charge access - Using standard licenses that are really free (strongly proposing cc-0 and cc-by) - We raised the issue of copyfraud *Commission implementation guidelines* While the document is not published yet, Szymon Lewandowski from the Commission presented the content that will be released in two weeks time. The Commission is recommending: - Not licensing material that is already in the public domain - Using cc-0 as a default license - Using cc-by where a public sector body doesn't feel comfortable with cc-0 - If a body really needs to create an own license, it should make sure its compatible - Marginal charges are allowed can include return on investment not highter than 5% of fixed interest rate - However: online access and distrubution should be free of charge According to Mr. Lewandowski they didn't include a statement on NC clauses, because they believed that this will only make people think about it, increasing the chances of using such restrictions. *Actual publishing of the guidelines * The actual guidelines will be released July 17th and will be called a "notice" (for some strange reason I didn't understand). Apparently they're being translated now. *Relevance* While these are non-binding, they still represent the official opinion of the European Commission or at least DG CONNECT. It clearly states that public information and content should be free and re-usable without restriction, making it a useful argument in debates with other DGs and third-parties. The group also talked about how important it is to measure GDP impact of released data and content in order to win arguments in the future. In this field, Deloitte UK is already making efforts in putting a number on the money gained for the economy by releasing datasets. I shall share their analysis as soon as it is available to me (they promised to share it). Cheers, Dimi

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[Advocacy Advisors] UNESCO Study on Internet Issues
by Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov 17 Jul '14

17 Jul '14

Hi all, UNESCO is conducting a study on internet issues. [1] If you can spare the time, fill it out! UNESCO is indeed the part of the UN we've been having most contacts with, especially working on OER and digitisation (e.g. conference in Berlin, panel discussion in Brussels [2]). They're generally much more open on copyright issues than other parts of the UN. Cheers, Dimi [1] http://unesco-ci.org/cmscore/content/questions-unescos-comprehensive-study-… [2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mass_Digitization_and_Open_Acce…

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[Advocacy Advisors] Civil Society Coalition opposes Copyright Term extension via TPP
by Mathias Schindler 10 Jul '14

10 Jul '14

https://www.eff.org/files/2014/07/08/copyrightterm_tppletter_print-fnl.pdf https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/dozens-organizations-and-businesses-p… We Join Dozens of Organizations and Businesses to Protest TPP Copyright Proposals Today, EFF and its partners in the global Our Fair Deal coalition join together with an even more diverse international network of creators, innovators, start-ups, educators, libraries, archives and users to release two new open letters to negotiators of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP, although characterized as a free trade agreement, is actually far broader in its intended scope. Amongst many changes to which it could require the twelve negotiating countries to agree are a slate of increased rights and privileges for copyright rights holders. With no official means of participating in the negotiations, the global community of users and innovators who will be affected by these proposed changes have been limited to expressing their concerns through open letters to their political representatives and to the officials negotiating the agreement. Each of the two open letters released today focuses on a separate element of the heightened copyright regime that the TPP threatens to introduce, and is endorsed by a separate groups of signatories representing those most deeply impacted by the proposed changes in each case. Intermediary Copyright Enforcement As the document below describes, countries around the Pacific rim are being pressured to agree to proposed text for the TPP that would require them to adopt a facsimile of the DMCAto regulate the take-down of material hosted online, upon the mere allegation of copyright infringement by a claimed rights-holder. Indeed, industry lobbyists are pushing for an even stricter regime, dubbed "notice and staydown", that would make it harder than ever before for users and innovators to safely publish creative, transformational content online. Read the full letter here Amongst the 65 high-profile signatories who have endorsed this open letter as of today areReddit, the Internet Archive, Stack Exchange and Namecheap. Copyright Term Extension The rash 20 year extension of the term of copyright protection in the United States in 1998 confounded economists, and frustrated librarians, archivists and consumers, who were consequently starved of new public domain works until 2019. Now the USA intends to compound its error by extending it to all of the other TPP negotiating countries—or at least, those that haven't already yielded to bilateral pressure to extend their copyright terms. As the letter below explains, this would be a senseless assault on the public domain and on those libraries, authors, educators, users and others who depend upon it. Read the full letter here The letter on copyright term extension has been endorsed by 35 organizations so far, including Creative Commons, the Wikimedia Foundation, Public Knowledge and theInternational Federation of Library Associations (IFLA). Express your support Although the letters have been presented to TPP negotiators today, they will remain open for further signatories to express their support, and may be presented again in future rounds. Interested organizations can express their interest in endorsing the open letters on copyright term extension and intermediary liability using the links given here. For individuals who are not affiliated with a company or organization, we encourage them instead to take action through the Our Fair Deal coalition's petition (can we take it to 20,000 signatories by this weekend?), and for those who are American citizens, through EFF's action to oppose fast-track authority. -- Mathias Schindler Projektmanager Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. web: http://www.wikimedia.de mail: mathias.schindler(a)wikimedia.de Ceterum censeo opera officiales esse liberandam - http://urheberrecht.wikimedia.de/ Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.

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[Advocacy Advisors] Question to Juncker on copyright
by Julia Reda 09 Jul '14

09 Jul '14

Hi, in his hearing at the Greens/EFA group today, I asked Juncker about copyright. Here is the transcript of his reply (in German): http://senficon.eu/2014/07/frage-an-juncker-zum-urheberrecht/ Best, Julia

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[Advocacy Advisors] Free Knowledge Advocacy: Planned Wikimania London Activities
by Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov 08 Jul '14

08 Jul '14

Hi all, We're planning 5 activities related to advocacy during Wikimania in London [1]. Here's the list so you can comment, criticise, praise (yes, please) or just say you wish to help organising one or several of those (double yes). We have two programme submissions, two side-events and one "work meeting" . *1. Panel Discussion *[2] - Saturday 16:30-18 "How should Wikimedia advocate for free knowledge?" Panelists are Luis Villa, Jan Engelmann, Andrea Zanni, Parker Higgins and Katherine Maher *If you want to change something (panelists, topic), this is still possible. * *2. Talk/Workshop *[3] - Saturday ca. 15:30, just before Panel Discussion Update about the EU activities and brainstorming on cool project ideas tht could generate political and media impact. Idea is to provide a little background and set the tone for the panel discussion. *Dimi and whoever wishes to take part. * *3. Weasel Whiteboard on Wheels* The idea is to have a whiteboard with Wendy and someone from our group going around the conference and engage people in conversation about advocacy, free knowledge and policy. The whiteboard will pose questions that we need to answer for our strategy planning. Example: What would the best 30-second pitch for Freedom of Panorama be? Can you think of any groups in your country that would be interested in the issue? *Anyone who wishes can do this for a while. Not compulsory schedule.* *4. Networking Lunch* - Sunday at lunch The idea is that a lot of civil society groups/activits/NGOs will be present at Wikimania this year (e.g. ORG, EFF, OK, Initiative für Netzfreiheit). We should take an hour at lunch or in the evening to get to know each other and catch each other up on what we're working on. A lot of synergies and know-how transfer possible here! I am trying to see if I can get a seperate room reserved and the registrations lists, so I can invite the people. *Please feedback - still just planning* *5. Working on Strategy *- Thursday and Monday We need to come up with a more coherent and long-term advocacy strategy, at least when it comes to our core issues like PD-Gov and FoP. Questions like: Who are the main decision makers? Which actors are possible allies? What is our best 30-second and 3-minute pitch? Which tactics sould we use (direct lobbying/coalitions/petitions/media work/showcases/studies/information materials)? As people have incompatible travel schedules I will offer a meeting on this on Thursday and Monday after the conference. I expect Monday to be more focused and productive, though. Cheers, Dimi [1]https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page [2] https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Liquid_Lobbying_-_How_… [3] https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Liquid_Lobbying_-_How_…

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[Advocacy Advisors] copyright and TPP - ourfairdeal.org
by Luis Villa 05 Jul '14

05 Jul '14

Hi, all- In December, we wrote asking about joining a letter on copyright term in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which signed after consulting with this group.[1] Unfortunately, current drafts of the TPP apparently still contain similar language, as well as language that would threaten intermediary liability protections. There is a meeting on Wednesday in Canada between negotiators of the TPP, so we've been asked to join two new letters restating our opposition to these changes (one letter for term limits and one for intermediary liability). These letters are being coordinated through Our Fair Deal. Our Fair Deal is a coalition of authors and groups focused on opposing negative changes to copyright (like term length and intermediary liability) in TPP. You can read more about them at ourfairdeal.org. Given the previous discussion on this list, we plan to sign on to the letters (whose deadline is Sunday night, Pacific). We also think it makes sense to join the Our Fair Deal campaign, since protecting the public domain is critical to our mission of distributing free and public domain content, and the impact of the TPP could be substantial, both within the US and more globally. Does this group have any thoughts on joining the campaign? Thanks- Luis [1] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/advocacy_advisors/2013-December/000289… -- 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>.*

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[Advocacy Advisors] Commissioner on copyright reform and FoP
by Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov 05 Jul '14

05 Jul '14

Hi all, Neelie Kores, outgoing Commissioner for the Digital Agenda held a speech at a conference in Amsterdam yesterday where she spoke about the need of the planned copyright reform. [1] Among other things, she said: *When you can't sing happy birthday, or post a picture of the Atomium, how is that fair or reasonable, how is that something you can explain to ordinary citizens?* Yes, it is an outgoing Commissioner and DG CONNECT is the not the lead DG for copyright, but this is the first time the European Commission said anything about Freedom of Panorama. I know for a fact that it was the members of the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU and their constant talk to anyone about this issue how the Atomium example showed up on the radars of both DG CONNECT and DG MARKT. In this line of thought I just wanted to say: Thank you and great job, everyone! Let's make sure we keep FoP on the table. We actually have the great examples and stories to tell. Cheers, Dimi

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