Wikimedia EU Public Policy Report April 2015
Since Politico has launched a Brussels version (wmde.org/1JbgQ3Y), I was
tempted to test their ticker-like newsletter style. This means shorter
articles and less structure. I get the sense that people find it
increasingly challenging to read 4 pages full of longer paragraphs on
mailing lists. Instead they need to be able to quickly skip to bits that
interest them. Let me know what you think! I may stick with the format if
it proves popular.
Dimi
tl;dr
Vote on “Reda Report” postponed by more than a month. FoP is looking good.
PDGov is a toss-up.
This and past reports: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor
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EP’s Copyright Directive Implementation Report (a.k.a. Reda Report)>>>
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1) Report Vote Postponed: The Committee vote on the report has been
postponed by more than a month. New indicative dates are 15-16 June for the
Legal Affairs committee and 6-9 July for the plenary vote. Reasons are
manifold and include complexity of subject matter, uneasy compromises and
elections in the UK and Poland. This gives us a chance to work on PDGov,
but also opens the doors for a counter-effort. In general we have
convincing arguments but less “firing power”, so extra time can be both a
blessing and a curse.
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2) Compromises on FoP and PDGov: The MEPs have been pottering around for
weeks and it looks like “non-commercial” for FoP is largely gone, although
still asked for by a some. Getting French Conservatives to drop this demand
would be especially helpful. PDGov is more challenging. The EP will most
likely call the Commission to lower barriers, but it remains an open
question if it will explicitly mention PDGov itself. Assuring support from
Spanish, Italian and German Socialists plus anyone from the UK would be a
priority. Many national governments, like the UK, have invested in a
home-grown “open license” and see this proposal as something that competes
with their beloved initiatives.
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3) ITRE’s opinion: The Industry, Research and Technology Committee adopted
an opinion on the Reda Report calling for shortening copyright terms and
safeguarding the public domain. It also stresses that exceptions and
limitations are an integral part of any copyright framework.
wmde.org/1JbgKcC
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4) CULT has no opinion: In contrast to ITRE, the Culture Committee failed
to accept its opinion by one vote. What this means is not clear, confusion
in the room was mounting to a point where MEPs didn’t even know which
paragraphs they were voting on. Before shooting itself in the foot, the
Committee passed PDGov by a two vote majority and voted down FoP by one. A
clear toss-up that shows how close we are to changing outcomes or failing
at it. Notes by [[User:Nemo_bis]] wmde.org/1DE8Za2
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5) Copyfraud, linking: Other than our core issues, safeguarding the public
domain and making sure we’re not liable for links that appear on our
websites would definitely be things to look out for. We’re not exactly
hopeful, but reaching compromises that don’t go into the completely wrong
direction is not entirely impossible. Communia is focusing on safeguarding
the PD, while Mozilla will zero in on linking. From our side, I was given
useful copyfraud examples on the WMFR lobbying list wmde.org/1OHNLDZ
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6) Opposition forming: Rumours of several anti-reform coalitions are making
the round here. Chitchats like “the biggest pro-copyright coalition since
the 1990s” are becoming water cooler hits in the Commission, the Parliament
and among reporters. There’s nothing official to pin this to, so we don’t
know if this is a bluff or an actual threat. Keep your eyes open for any
coordinated pro-copyright messages. wmde.org/1Q1IFQb
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New IPR Working Group: The Internal Market Committee of the EP has formed
another copyright working group (wmde.org/1zsZFuV). This one seems to be
much more balanced than the one lead by our all time favourite MEP
Jean-Marie Cavada (wmde.org/1EtJGLV). We did join an open letter calling
for a balanced representation on the latter (wmde.org/1I0urOx).
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DSM Strategy: On 6 May the Commission will present its plans on the Digital
Single Market (wmde.org/1P9zSJG). This is supposed to vaguely encompass
everything “digital” and more precisely include details on copyright,
telecoms, VAT, funding and more. The leaks so far have revealed lackluster
plans (wmde.org/1HTSayg), but we still expect the Commission to go for
harmonising a few exceptions and are trying to get into position by having
the EP endorse our asks and engaging the Commission on a weekly basis.
Meanwhile, everyone else has also been firing away (e.g. wmde.org/1FzCFLI &
wmde.org/1Jblf6Q) while an unambitious DG Connect cabinet would obviously
prefer to deal with pretty much anything else.
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Mozilla to join Brussels Advocacy Efforts: After hiring the former
AccessNow Policy Director (wmde.org/1EtPGEf), the folks at Mozilla are
getting serious about their EU advocacy work. They will hire someone in
Brussels to represent them and work on “innovation” and “not breaking the
internet”. Perhaps the OKFN, now under new leadership (wmde.org/1zt3znE),
wants to follow suit?
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Attempts to unfreeze Net Neutrality: There has been some activity by the
Commission to get the blocked net neutrality legislation going. After the
Parliament passed on the dossier with strong NN protections, it has been
stalled by the Member States in the Council. As for WP:0 - the Commission
and Council proposals would allow it, the EP’s wouldn’t. It’s now all up to
the compromises in the trialogue wmde.org/1OHWaYg
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Shameless self-promotion>>>
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1) FoP Event by co-hosted by Wikimedia: The chair of the Legal Affairs
Committee Pavel Svoboda has agree to host a Freedom of Panorama workshop
for us in the European Parliament on the 27th of May between 9-11. Him
being part of the largest group, this makes for a good chance to position
FoP as an accepted mainstream compromise. John Weitzmann from Creative
Commons will represent the civil society side while Prof. Guiseppe
Mazziotti from Trinity College Dublin will be the academic voice.
Commission and industry representatives TBC. Draft poster wmde.org/1DYg2uW
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2) Italian digital hero [[User:Nemo]] first Visiting Weasel in Brussels:
All you need to know is in the blog post wmde.org/1zt6fBF
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3) NGO Strategy Lunch and WM Salon on copyright reform in Berlin: Next
Friday we’re going at it in Germany. First a NGO strategy lunch (
wmde.org/1JCUg7M) in order to establish closer ties with “traditional” NGOs
like Amnesty International, HumanRightsWatch and Reporters Without Borders
and then a discussion on copyright reform (wmde.org/abc-salon).
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Call for action>>>
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1) Call for callers: If you haven’t participated in our FoP and PDGov
advocacy campaign so far and would like to speak your mind to a politician
in a structured and well-articulated manner, react on or off-list.
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2) Revamping on Meta-Wiki: We need someone to help us restructure parts of
the EU Policy Meta-Wiki Page (http://wmde.org/1DMp8f9). Probably 10-15
minutes of work for more experienced coders.
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3) Layout of short&simple brochures: Graphic design is your thing? We would
like to have three brochures on our EU Policy goals and wouldn’t mind them
to boost appealing looks.
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Hi all,
it is now two weeks ago that Federico spend a week with me and Karl in
Brussels and managed to talk to a lot of Italian MEPs. I really do think
his visit was hugely effective. He met with - by my own cont - 9 MEP
offices in 4,5 days. They were from all political groups and many of them
engaged in an honest conversation with him leading to further exchanges.
Background: The Italian delegation is the largest in the S&D Group and the
S&D Group's position will be decisive on PDGov.
Here's his post:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/04/24/european-copyright-reform/
>From my side I want to thank him for his hard work and great support!
Cheers,
Dimi
Hello, everybody!
Me and Karl just had a meeting with Mozilla's Jochai (San Francisco based)
and Gervase (UK based and on this list). Mozilla will very quickly get
active in Brussels hiring a full-time representative.
Their policy goals will be published soon and are centred around "not
breaking the internet" and copyright, with a focus on goals such as having
an "open norm" (i.e. fair use), an audiovisual citation exception and
fighting against linking liability.
We're also likely to experience similar organisational challenges, as
they're also looking into a way to ensure a coherent message and strategy
and involve their volunteer community.
I personally am excited that we'll have another advocate for free&open
things on the ground here.
Cheers,
Dimi
Hi all,
This morning I met Nick Shockey from SPARC [1] and the Right to Research
Coalition [2]. He's in Brussels to set up their Advocacy strategy and
campaign on OA and OER.
What we have have very much in common with them is that we're both worried
that the term "Open Access" might be diluted to mean just having access.
They also like to have more and more things put under a cc-by license,
which overlaps with our goals. (As a reminder, here are our positions on
the topic: [3][4])
The R2RC is organising an Open Access, Open Education and Open Data
conference in Brussels coming November [5] and have asked us for some help:
1. Advise them on their advocacy targets and strategy. (I am already doing
that.)
2. Participate in the conference by sending Wikimedians on scholarships.
(Do you think we could/should do it and if yes how?)
3. They're planning a reception in the European Parliament in November and
need a speaker. (Can we recommend someone?)
4. Struggle for interpretation: They have a brochure in the US explaining
and defining OA in line with the Budapest Declaration. (Should we work with
them on creating a European version and disseminating it?)
Thanks!
Dimi
[1]http://www.sparc.arl.org/about/staff/nick-shockey
[2]http://www.righttoresearch.org/
[3]http://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/03/18/wikimedia-open-access-policy/
[4]http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/10/20/free-open-access-and-wikipedia/
[5]http://www.righttoresearch.org/blog/opencon-2015-details-announced.shtml
Dear all,
I am sharing with you the final version of the FoP Report [1] produced for
us by PhD students of the NYU Law School and the Haute Ecole de Commerces
in Paris and their professors. The two higher education institutions run
together a EU Public Interest Clinic that aims to work in support of public
interest initiatives.
The conclusion is that a universal FoP exception allowing all uses is the
best way forward for this exception.
Just as a re-cap, this is the fourth study on FoP we have so far. The
others:
1. A community-generated analysis of FoP around the globe on Commons [2]
2. A EU implementation study done for us by the UniBIT University in Sofia
[3]
3. A EU implementation study done for us by iRightsLaw Berlin [4]
Studies 1-3 analyse the current situation and the implementation or lack of
FoP in different countries.
Cheers,
Dimi
[1]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HEC-NYU_Wikimedia_Freedom_of_Panora…
[2]https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_panorama
[3]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Studies/FoP2/
[4]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Studies/FoP1/
Hello friends - I think this is my first post to this list?
Wanted to invite you to an event that Mozilla policy+privacy is
organizing next week at our San Francisco offices, in case it's of
interest. We're organizing monthly privacy lab discussions at rotating
locations (security is also a common topic as you can tell from the
agenda). More information on signing up for updates is below, along with
contact information for Stacy Martin who is the primary organizer.
Thanks,
chris
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Thursday, 23 April 2015 from 16:00 to 18:00 (PDT)
Mozilla Office, 2 Harrison Street, San Francisco, CA
RSVP
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/privacy-lab-and-cryptoparty-a-meetup-for-pri…>
Our April Privacy Lab will include an optional and free Cryptoparty,
hosted by Peninsula CryptoParty Volunteers
(https://wildbee.org/cryptoparty.html). Cryptoparty participants will
leave the event with new tools on their own devices that they'll have
learned how to use.
At this meeting, our speaker will be *Melanie Ensign*. Melanie's topic
is how security/crypto experts can communicate to non-technical
audiences, including how she sees consumer demand for privacy and
security evolving and how privacy and security products need to be sold
and communicated to the public. Her presentation will be 15 minutes
followed by 15 minutes of Q&A. It will be preceded by 30 minutes of
socializing as people arrive.
Following the speaker and Q&A, *we will break into two groups*, those
who wish to attend the cryptoparty to acquire and learn about new tools
to use on their own devices and those who would like to continue with
the usual Privacy Lab schedule of networking and talking about general
privacy topics.
As always, the goal of Privacy Lab is to bring together and others
interested in privacy at for-profits, non-profits, and NGOs in an effort
to contribute to the state of the ecosystem for privacy. By attending,
you'll be able to hear what other people and organizations are working
on, share what you're working on, and learn how to get involved.
We hope to see you attend and become part of the growing community of
privacy advocates in San Francisco. If you can't attend in person, this
session will be recorded on https://air.mozilla.org.
RSVP
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/privacy-lab-and-cryptoparty-a-meetup-for-pri…>
--
For more information, including our code of conduct, see
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Privacy/Privacy_Lab
<https://wiki.mozilla.org/Privacy/Privacy_Lab>.
To receive notice of these and other Mozilla privacy events, you can
join *privacy-events at mozilla dot org.* More information can be found
at: https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/privacy-events
<https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/privacy-events>.
--
Stacy Martin
Senior Manager, Privacy and Engagement
Mozilla
2 Harrison Street, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA
916-390-4845 (cell)
stacy(a)mozilla.com <mailto:stacy@mozilla.com>
Hello, everybody!
I am very happy to announce that Federico (user:nemo) will be our first
Visiting Weasel in Brussels.
He will be in Brussels in the week 13-17 April, just weeks ahead of the
Legal Affairs Committee vote on the Implementation of the InfoSoc Directive
Report ("Reda Report"), which is scheduled for 8 May.
His job will be to concentrate mainly on Italian MEPs and round up support
for PDGov and FoP, which are both part of the first draft but now under
considerable attack. The first might get deleted altogether, while for the
latter there is proposal to include a non-commercial restriction.
Nemo has been very active so far in our advocacy efforts, working on our
strategy, monitoring and contacting decision-makers in Brussels and Italy.
We are already working on filling his schedule.
More details on the amendment proposals and committee opinions next week in
the monitoring report ;)
Have a great weekend!
Dimi