Dear Public Policy wikifolk,
As some of you may be aware, I've been working with Jessica Coates (cc'd) -
of the Australian Digital Alliance(ADA) - formerly from Creative Commons
international - on a Wikimedia advocacy campaign in Australia with regards
to the possibility that Fair Use legislation could be introduced into the
Australian Copyright Act. This has been recommended many times before by
various government enquiries, and the Library and Education sectors of
Australia have long hoped for its introduction. Our current system - known
as Fair Dealing - is extremely limiting and prescriptive, which is why it
was illegal, for example, to use a personal VCR recorder in Australia until
2006, just to take one example...
Having sought and received confirmation from WMF-Legal that the proposal is
technically and legally allowable, and also received confirmation from the
ADA that their staff/communications/documentation resources would be
available to do the 'heavy lifting' in terms of public communications, I
have been running this straw poll/consultation with the Australian,
english-Wikipedia community:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Australian_Wikipedians%27_notice_bo…
You can see there the details of the proposed advocacy campaign on-wiki,
and also the background details of why this legal issue is relevant right
now in the Australian political landscape.
In short - I'm proposing to run banners on en.wp to logged out users in the
Australian-IP range who are viewing WP articles which include a Fair Use
image (e.g. corporate logo, album cover, film title card...), which will
point them to a landing page [probably on meta] explaining what Fair Use in
Australia would mean in practice, and why it's not nearly as scary as the
Copyright Lobby would have them believe. It can then point people to
further resources on the ADA website, ask them to contact their local
politician on the matter etc. [I do NOT intend for wikimedians to be
collecting a petition]. In this regard it is rather similar to the FoP
advocacy campaign run in Europe.
here's some local political context:
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/productivity-commission-to-say-fair-use-could…
and here's a video that ADA produced a couple of years ago for their
previous lobbying campaign in this topic (which was pitched to an audience
of online-creative industry in general)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ACreationistas_-_Aust…
And here's the actual government enquiry report which is currently sitting
in front of the politicans waiting for a formal reply:
http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/intellectual-property/report
As you can see at the Straw Poll/Consultation page the comments so far are
heavily (though not unanimously) in favour of running this advocacy
campaign on-wiki. It has been advertised through watchlist notifications in
the Australian IP range, emails to the Australian-chapter mailing list, as
well as talkpage notices to the 1700 people in the category:Australian
Wikipedians.
So, as people involved in wikimedia/open-access advocacy in general, you're
welcome to comment on that page yourselves (though - do please indicate if
you're actually going to be affected by this proposal, since it's only
going to be visible in Australia). Equally - I'd love your feedback and
help in designing the banner and landing page (on meta?) IF the
consultation is eventually closed as demonstrating confirmed
relevant-community consensus to support. Obviously there's a Communications
side of this as well.
Sincerely,
Liam / Wittylama
wittylama.com
Peace, love & metadata
Hi all,
As we have stated in our annual plan [1], “currently, community members
must search many pages and places to stay informed about Foundation
activities and resources.” We have worked in the past two quarters to
create a single point of entry. We call it the Wikimedia Resource Center,
and its alpha version is now live on Meta Wikimedia:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Resource_Center
As the movement expands to include more affiliates and more programmatic
activities every year, newer Wikimedians are faced with lack of experience
in the movement and its various channels for requesting support. In order
to expand Wikimedia communities’ efforts, we want to provide easy access to
resources that support their very important work. The [[m:Wikimedia
Resource Center]] is a hub designed in response to this issue: it is
intended to evolve into a single point of entry for Wikimedians all over
the world to the variety of resources and types of staff support they may
need to develop new initiatives or also expand existing ones.
This version of the Resource Center is only the beginning. For phase two of
the project, we will enable volunteer Wikimedians to add resources
developed by other individuals or organizations to the Wikimedia Resource
Center, and in phase three, the Wikimedia Resource Center will include
features to better connect Wikimedians to other Wikimedians that can
support them.
We want to hear what you think about this prototype and our plans for it!
If you have comments about the Wikimedia Resource Center, you can submit
your feedback publicly, on the Talk Page, or privately, via a survey hosted
by a third party, that shouldn’t take you more than 4 minutes to complete.
A feedback button is on the top right corner on every page of the hub.
Looking forward to more collaborations!
Best,
María
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2016-2017/…
--
María Cruz
Communications and Outreach Project Manager, Community Engagement
Hello, team!
If have a good memory (I don't) you will recall that last month I asked you
to review and comment the text for two flyers on public policy topics I am
preparing. The issues were Freedom of Panorama and Safeguarding the Public
Domain. All the input was so great, that now I want to ask for the same
thing again.
I have drafted two new pages
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oMCxqErppinHpLUGB1FbqHK4js--d8fxc2KgBX_…>
(pages 3&4) - on Intermediary Liability Protection and on Text and Data
Mining. Comments and edits are highly appreciated!
The plan is to have these issue flyers designed nicely and then printed in
at least English. The final text will be moved to Meta.
Thank you!
Dimi
Hello everyone,
For your reading pleasure, here is the sixth issue of our newsletter.
If you’d like to stay engaged with you us on a more regular basis, please
follow us on Twitter: @wikimediapolicy <https://twitter.com/wikimediapolicy>
.
We would love to also include things that you see happening in your country
or elsewhere. If you have any feedback or want to let us know about an
issue, please fill out this form
<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/forms/d/1-_XXZ3CC0tqX0vRQyU2cHjXxf3…>
or follow up with me by email at jgerlach(a)wikimedia.org.
Policy issue highlights
Amicus Brief in support of freedom to travel and collaborate
As we previously shared, on April 21, the Wikimedia Foundation signed an
amicus brief in support of two separate challenges to an executive order
that would restrict immigration and travel to the US. The brief in State of
Hawaii v. Trump (before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals) and the similar
case of International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump (before the
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals) explains how the order would impact the
international operations of the signatories and outlines legal problems
with the order’s provisions and proposed implementation.
This is the third time this year that we, along with many other companies
and organizations, have filed an amicus brief in support of a challenge to
a U.S. executive order’s restrictions on international travel and
immigration. These travel restrictions would harm our ability to
collaborate with community members and stakeholders across the globe.
On May 8, oral arguments took place before the Fourth Circuit, during which
government lawyers were questioned about the order’s underlying rationale.
On May 15, arguments took place before the Ninth Circuit. An injunction
against an earlier executive order was upheld in similar case, State of
Washington v. Trump, in March; we are hopeful about the outcome of these
hearings as well. We will keep you posted on the progress of these cases.
Read the amicus brief:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:Amicus_brief_of_tech_companies_%2…
Read the updated blog post:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/03/15/amicus-brief-us-travel-restrictions/
Amicus Brief in support of intermediary immunity and community oversight
On Friday, May 12, the Wikimedia Foundation joined the Electronic Frontier
Foundation and others in filing an amicus brief in support of intermediary
immunity under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in Mavrix
Photographs, LLC v. LiveJournal, Inc. Photo agency Mavrix has filed a
copyright infringement lawsuit against LiveJournal, claiming that one of
the blogs on LiveJournal featured some of its photographs and that the
presence of volunteer moderators, who prescreened content before it was
posted, made LiveJournal ineligible for the safe harbor granted by section
512(c) of the DMCA.
We are joining a brief to United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit to argue that it would be counter to the legislative intent behind
the DMCA to impose liability on intermediaries if there is a screening
process in place. If courts weaken these immunities for websites, they will
have less legal leeway to defer to user judgement. Moderation, and
enforcement of content policies by users, can help ensure that content is
legal, accurate, and safe. The Wikimedia Foundation relies on the DMCA safe
harbor to ensure that if infringing content ever appears on the Wikimedia
projects, it can be handled by admins and community processes. We believe
that the Wikimedia projects can thrive thanks to the safe harbor protection
that lets the Foundation respect community self-governance.
Read the amicus brief:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:WMF,_et._al._Amicus_Brief_in_Mavr…
Wikipedia blocked in Turkey
As most of you will know, on Saturday, April 29 all language versions of
Wikipedia were blocked in Turkey. We filed an objection to the order to
block Wikipedia on Tuesday, May 2, which was denied, and then we filed a
petition with the Turkish Constitutional Court seeking a ruling to restore
access to Wikipedia users in Turkey.
Read the full blog post here:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/04/30/turkish-authorities-block-wikipedia/
18 NGOs file intervention in support of freedom of expression in France
In 2016, French data protection authority CNIL decided to implement the
right to be forgotten worldwide, rejecting a compromise offer by Google and
requiring the search engine to respond to delisting requests by removing
corresponding search results from all of its domains. The case, CNIL v.
Google, is now before the French Supreme Court (Conseil d’Etat). Late last
year, we filed a petition to the Court and partnered with Wikimedia France
to publish an op-ed encouraging lawmakers to consider the importance of
public access to knowledge in the context of the right to be forgotten.
In February, the Conseil d’Etat has asked the European Court of Justice
(CJEU) to issue a preliminary ruling on the matter. Until that happens, the
case in France has come to a halt.
Now, a group of 18 non-governmental organizations from around the world
have jointly filed an intervention before the Conseil d’Etat. Internet
Freedom Foundation, the Software
Freedom Law Center (India), Association for Progressive Communications,
Institute of Technology and Society of Rio, Red en Defensa de los Derechos
Digitales, and others have written to France’s highest court, urging it to
annul CNIL’s order. The NGOs express their concern over the negative
implications the order has on freedom of expression and the precedent this
would set for censorship by governments in the developing world. We welcome
the intervention by this impressive group of organizations working for
freedom of expression around the world and will keep you updated when new
developments occur.
Read the intervention:
http://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/documents/uploaded-documents/Google_CNIL_FIN…
Read our op-ed in Le Monde here (in French):
http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2016/11/25/le-droit-a-l-oubli-ne-doit-p…
Read about our own petition:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/10/19/petition-right-to-be-forgotten/
Read the Conseil d’Etat’s press release about the request to the CJEU:
http://english.conseil-etat.fr/Activities/Press-releases/Right-to-be-delist…
Events
Creative Commons Global Summit
During the last weekend of April, we and a few other Wikimedians
participated in the 2017 Creative Commons Global Summit in Toronto. The
summit brought together people from around the world who work for free and
participatory culture and access to knowledge. We contributed to
discussions of public policy advocacy for the CC and free culture
communities, and on reimagining the CC tools (licenses, deeds, website,
etc.) for the current needs of users. In addition, Chuck from the Wikimedia
Foundation led a workshop on strategies to address the issues of reusers
not providing proper CC attribution and of creators sending reusers legal
threats in response to improper attribution.
At the summit, Creative Commons presented their latest State of the Commons
report, which shows that more than 1.2 Billion works are now freely
licensed! The report also includes an inspiring story about a medical
doctor, whose university students actively edit 42 Wikipedia articles on
health-related topics.
Read the State of the Commons report:
https://stateof.creativecommons.org/
Thanks for reading this newsletter!
All the best,
Stephen and Jan
==
Jan Gerlach
Public Policy Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
jgerlach(a)wikimedia.org
Please get in touch with Javier directly if you are interested in signing
as an individual. Might WMUK be interested in signing on too?
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Javier Ruiz <javier(a)openrightsgroup.org>
Date: Tue, 16 May 2017, 22:14
Subject: [ORG-advisory] Joint letter to stop password demands at UK border
under Schedule 7 Terrorism Act 2000
To: ORG Advisory Council
Dear all
we are working with other NGOs, calling for organisations and individuals
to sign to the following statement, with a view to start ongoing pressure
to demand a stop on password demands at the UK border.
Please mail me if you have any queries. There is some background here
https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Terrorism_Act_2000/Schedule_7 and
here
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/14/campaign-group-to-challeng…
Please forward it on to people you think may be able to sign. We’d like to
get it published by the end of the week. Apologies for the short notice.
Best, Javier
------
We, the undersigned, professionals, experts and practitioners in privacy
and human rights have observed that:
1) Mobile phones and digital devices today hold all of our personal
information, from intimate family photos to confidential work documents.
Most of our lives are documented digitally in some form. Our passwords are
the keys that unlock our digital lives and provide us with some privacy.
2) Recently there has been a growing international trend of authorities
demanding passwords at borders and forcibly gaining access to devices. A
coalition of human rights organisations in the US have launched the “Fly
don’t spy” campaign in order to ensure travellers are not forced to
disclose their passwords without reason.
3) In the UK, each year over 30,000 people are held without suspicion at
borders, many threatened with imprisonment if they do not reveal the
passwords to their phones, tablets and laptops. Their devices are then
copied and analysed. This is effectively unaccountable surveillance of
British citizens, circumventing investigatory powers legislation. Moreover,
80% of those stopped are from an ethnic minority suggesting the power may
be applied in a discriminatory manner.
We are concerned with these developments and believe that:
4) People should not have to choose between maintaining their right to
privacy or their right to travel, they should be allowed to have both. This
is especially true for journalists and human rights defenders who have a
duty to protect their sources.
5) No one should be forced to disclose their passwords without a warrant
based on specific suspicion and basic standards of evidence. No one should
be imprisoned for refusing to disclose it.
6) Thousands are already affected. The powers to compel password disclosure
at the border are open to abuse - infringing on the rights of individuals
to privacy, free speech and association - and should be removed.
END
_______________________________________________
ORG-advisory mailing list
Dear All,
On Friday, May 12, the Wikimedia Foundation joined the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, Public Knowledge, the American Library Association, and others
in filing an amicus brief
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:WMF,_et._al._Amicus_Brief_in_Mavr…>
in support of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act> safe
harbor. The case in question is Mavrix Photographs, LLC v. LiveJournal, Inc.
LiveJournal has petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Ninth_…>
to grant rehearing, and the brief supports that petition.
LiveJournal is a blogging and social media platform. Mavrix is a photo
agency that filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against LiveJournal,
claiming that one of the LiveJournal blogs featured some of its
photographs. As the content in question was posted by users, LiveJournal
argued that it was immune to suit under the safe harbor granted by section
512(c) of the DMCA. However, Mavrix claimed that the presence of volunteer
moderators, who prescreened content before it was posted, made LiveJournal
ineligible for this safe harbor. It claimed that the moderators acted as
LiveJournal’s agents, and gave LiveJournal control over the alleged
infringing activity. The district court agreed with LiveJournal, but Mavrix
appealed. A panel of the Ninth Circuit overturned the lower court’s ruling,
holding that there is a genuine dispute as to whether the moderators are
LiveJournal’s agents or not.
We joined an amicus brief to argue that this outcome is counter to the
legislative intent behind the DMCA. If having a screening process means
that a platform will lose its immunity to suit, websites will have less
legal leeway to defer to user judgement on issues like moderation and
content policies to ensure that content is legal and in line with community
or site policies. The Wikimedia Foundation relies on the DMCA safe harbor
to ensure that if infringing content ever appears on the Wikimedia
projects, it can be handled by admins and community processes. We believe
that the WIkimedia projects can thrive thanks to the safe harbor protection
that lets the Foundation defer to community decisions. .
We will keep you posted on the outcome of this case. As always, we will
continue to monitor ongoing cases related to copyright and other matters
that could affect the future of the projects, the communities, and the
Foundation, and speak up where we have an opportunity to do so. If you see
any similar cases in your country, please send an email to
apalmer(a)wikimedia.org or me (jgerlach(a)wikimedia.org).
Best,
Jan
==
Jan Gerlach
Public Policy Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
jgerlach(a)wikimedia.org
Lisette,
Our chapter (WMCZ) voted in favour of this issue yesterday, we will prepare the corresponding materials tonight (and then we should have tomorrow some information sent on behalf of our chapter to others.
Please inform me how an NGO can sign the petition online.
All best
Jan Loužek/Aktron
Wikimedia Czech Republic
______________________________________________________________
> Od: Lisette Kalshoven <lk(a)kl.nl>
> Komu: Publicpolicy Group for Wikimedia <publicpolicy(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Datum: 09.05.2017 13:33
> Předmět: [Publicpolicy] Last week of the RightCopyright.eu Campaign - we need your help!
>
Hi guys, We only have one week left on the www.rightcopyright.eu <http://www.rightcopyright.eu> campaign - I know a lot of you have already signed, thank you! If you have not: what are you waiting for!?We still need a lot of signatures to get to our goal, and a couple of days to make it. As you know we are collecting signatures to let the policymakers in Brussels know we need a better copyright for education. Right now, education exceptions are fragmented across Europe, which make sharing online difficult to do legally. We want to make sure we have equal rights for educators across the EU, and this includes museums, libraries, archives and other heritage institutions. Help us to achieve this goal by signing and sharing the petition. Please share to everyone and their mother the link to sign. We have the website in 13 European languages so you can share widely to people who are not English readers. You can:1. Retweet this: https://twitter.com/communia_eu/status/8607888804
45976576 <https://twitter.com/communia_eu/status/860788880445976576> or make your own tweet2. Share this on Facebook: “You may not know it, but you are breaking the law. Help us change this: bit.ly/rightcpy <http://bit.ly/rightcpy> #rightcopyright”3. Share this e-mail with mailing lists, friends/colleagues:“Dear ****,All over Europe, you are working towards shaping a new education system. A system that is collaborative, open and invites you to make the most of the tools and technologies around you. Unfortunately, copyright laws haven’t changed for over fifteen years, and this is affecting you every day.We would like to invite you to join us in our mission to shape the future of education now. Let’s make copyright right. Right now.Are you with us? Sign the petition at rightcopyright.eu <http://rightcopyright.eu>.We really appreciate your support![Name + email signature]”4. Include a quick message about the campaign in any newsletters you might send, or think might
be relevant for the campaign. You can find gifs and other useful things here: https://rightcopyright.eu/spread-the-word/ <https://rightcopyright.eu/spread-the-word/>5. All of the above :slightly_smiling_face:Please let me know if there are any questions or remarks, Cheers,Lisette Kalshoven
--
Kennisland | www.kl.nl <http://www.kl.nl> | t +31205756720 | m +31613943237 | @lnkalshoven | skype: lisette.kalshoven
----------
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