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>.
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
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/
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
https://www.eff.org/files/2014/07/08/copyrightterm_tppletter_print-fnl.pdfhttps://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.
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_…
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>.*
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