Dear all,
I want to highlight this initiative of public broadcasters internationally
https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/global-task-force-public-media-serving-…
Public broadcasters come together and claim:
Our countries may differ by culture and language, but we all share the
common duty to Inform, Educate and Entertain. Our engagement with audiences
of all ages across a range of broadcast and online services is critical to
our success in serving them whenever, wherever and however they want.
(however they want? did someone just say "remix" and "creative commons"?)
The Global Task Force is particularly proud of the speed with which public
media across the world have responded to the challenge of supporting the
education of children who are learning at home by bringing together
brilliant partners from across the public and private spheres. Public
service media is uniquely placed to play this role.
True. There is (among other things) high-quality educational content being
provided by public broadcasters. I'd love it to be
- freely licensed, whereever possible
- paid fairly
- accessible everywhere (no geoblocking!)
- accessible anytime (no expiry date for informational and educational
content)
We currently have a campaign going on targeted to german public
broadcasters, you can find it at wikimedia.de/oeffentliches-gut. Its slogan
is #ÖGÖG, meaning: Public Money – Public Good.
I would like to reach out to you guys, especially in* Australia, France,
United Kingdom, New Zealand, Sweden and Canada.* An open letter advocating
free licences in strengthening remix and re-use of the content of public
broadcasters could help us a lot. What do you think?
All the best from Berlin
Bernd
--
Bernd Fiedler
Projektmanager Politik
project manager public policy
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Mobil 0151 25 31 17 09
Büro (030) 219 158 26-0
https://wikimedia.de
Unsere Vision ist eine Welt, in der alle Menschen am Wissen der Menschheit
teilhaben, es nutzen und mehren können. Helfen Sie uns dabei!
https://spenden.wikimedia.de
Hier finden Sie unseren neuen Newsletter
<https://www.wikimedia.de/newsletter/>!
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 27/029/42207.
tl;dr
The EU’s “consultation season” remains well on track during lockdown,
despite some delays. We are currently working on the Data Strategy and
Artificial Intelligence consultations and are expecting the European
Commission to open the Digital Services Act consultation by the end of May.
Meanwhile, three MEPs have published their draft opinion reports on the
latter.
This and previous reports on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor
======
Digital Services Act: The European Commission is committed to update the
liability rules for digital platforms and services, with a new Digital
Services Act. [1] This piece of legislation, either a Directive or a
Regulation, is seen as a reform of the current E-Commerce Directive. [2]
---
Consultation: Latest news from Brussels has it that the public consultation
will be opened mid or end of May. We expect a longer consultation period,
perhaps until after summer, because of the pandemic. As relates to content
the Commission is very likely to ask about the adequacy of liability
protections, binding notice-and-action procedures and the enforcement of
rules including the creation of new European agency and the definition of
platforms. We also expect questions on the proactivity of platforms in
relation to liability. Currently platforms hosting user-generated content
enjoy liability protections if they don’t actively engage with content.
Which leads to a situation where they might lose protections if they
actively police their sites for illicit uploads. Conversely, providing
liability protections for platforms that police their user uploads may not
be a desired policy goal. A double-edged sword.
---
MEP Wölken (S&D DE) draft report: As part of almost any new legislative
initiative by the Commission, the European Parliament works in parallel on
opinion reports that serve as a first attempt to draft a position. German
Social-Democrat MEP Tiemo Wölken released his draft opinion report for the
Legal Affairs (JURI) committee. [3] The short text puts a strong focus on
fundamental rights, calls for a binding notice-and-action system and for a
European Agency to supervise platforms. Committee debates on this and other
reports could happen in May, but voting can’t be expected before September,
at the earliest.
---
MEP Charanzová (RE CZ) draft opinion: Earlier this month the Czech Renew
Europe MEP published a draft opinion of the Internal Market and Consumer
Protection (IMCO) committee on the JURI report (NB: Yes, almost everyone
who wanted got to write a report...). [4] She argues that the main
principles of the E-Commerce Directive should remain intact, namely the
country of origin principle and the limited liability regime, albeit
deeming it necessary to redefine who is an “active platform”. She also
emphasises that the prohibition of general monitoring must remain.
---
MEP Saliba (S&D MT) draft report: The actual IMCO draft report was written
by newly elected Maltese Social-Democrat Alex Agius Saliba. [5] He too
wants to keep the country of origin principle, like Charanzová, and also
wants a European Agency to supervise, like Wölken. He calls on the
Commission to define what “expeditious means”. An interesting aspect is
that he coins the term “systemic platforms” - specific platforms that would
endanger the internal market if they exclude new entrants - and suggest
special ex-ante rules should apply to them.
======
Consultation on Data Strategy: Which datasets should be considered
“high-value” and thus opened? What defines a high-value dataset? Is there
such a thing as “data altruism”? You can draft answers together with
several of us on Meta. [6] Submission deadline is end of May.
======
Consultation on AI: Several people on this list showed up and will try to
draft our answers to the European Commission consultation on Artificial
Intelligence. [7] The current consultation submission deadline is 14 June.
We will probably have a call, it is not too late to join.
This topic is likely to remain relevant for years. Topics we need to think
about include: AI & intellectual property; ethical standards in AI; data
access & digital infrastructure; skills & talent, scientific research.
======
Terrorist Content Regulation (TERREG):
It is official now - the trilogue negotiations are stalling. According to
Netzpolitik[8], the LIBE Committee assessed that the negotiations are not
feasible now for technical reasons - that is until physical convening is
possible again. In the meantime the issue seems to get more attention in
the press. Our Wikimedia Deutschland, together with Reporter Ohne Grenzen,
the German Association of Journalists, the German Union of Journalists, and
Whistleblower Network, sent an open letter to the German government[9]. The
letter calls on Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and Justice Minister
Christine Lambrecht to take a stronger stand for basic communication rights
at European level in the context of negotiations on the EU Regulation on
preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online. Also EDRi
published a great analysis of the regulation proposal in Euractiv[10]. As
the issue is not debated nearly enough, the time gained should be used for
a public debate over this legislation.
======
Calling Croatia: There is a public consultation on copyright reform
(implementing the CDSM Directive) in Croatia until 17 May and we would like
to participate. But we lack Wikimedians from Croatia. If you know someone
who might be interested in this, please ping us! :)
======
[1]
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/political-guidel…
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Commerce_Directive_2000
[3]https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/JURI-PR-650529_EN.pdf
[4]https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/IMCO-PA-648645_EN.pdf
[5]https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/IMCO-PR-648474_EN.pdf
[6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Consultation_on_a_European_Strate…
[7]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Consultation_on_the_White_Paper_o…
[8]https://netzpolitik.org/2020/uploadfilter-gehen-immer/
[9]
https://www.wikimedia.de/presse/offener-brief-zu-eu-massnahmen-gegen-terror…
[10]
https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/opinion/blind-faith-in-technology-…
======
END
======
Hi all,
The European Commission is running a public consultation until the end of
May on its White Paper on Artificial Intelligence [1].
We have pulled all the questions over to a dedicated Meta-Wiki page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Consultation_on_the_White_Paper_o…
I am already in touch with some people from our movement who are interested
in this. As this will likely be an ongoing policy issue, I wanted to ask
for a show of hands who is interested in working on this? Also, if you know
of someone who would want to contribute, but is not on this list, please
ping me!
We can start by drafting answers on Meta and have a coordination call to
discuss them.
Thanks and cheers,
Dimi
[1]
https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/white-paper-artificial-intelligence-…
Hello
UNESCO and CISAC organized a meeting (#ResiliArt). It seems that
CMOs (collective management organisations) will try to use the Covid-19
to ask new things. Jean-Michel Jarre is asking for a perpetual
copyright.
https://twitter.com/UNESCO/status/1251813037268402176
Pierre-Yves
Hi all,
COVID-19 or not, t he first year and a half of every new legislative term
in the EU are characterised by a large number of public consultation the
European Commission runs in order to prepare for its upcoming legislative
initiatives. We have already shared the consultation on Artificial
Intelligence regulation [1] in the last EU Policy Monitoring Report.
Closely connected to it (as AI feeds on data).
The European Commission is asking whether a general, continental set of
rules and principles for data sharing is a good idea, how to open up data
for the public interest, if data access and sharing principles should be
included in EU funding programmes and also which data sets should be
considered high value.
The last point relates to the Open Data Directive [2] which was passed
during the last legislative term and is formerly known as Public Sector
Information Directive. It allows the European Commission to publish a list
of "high-value datasets" that must be available for re-use free of charge
and in machine readable formats.
In case you want to work with us on the answers, we have until 31 May 2020
to submit them. We would appreciate your input by 16 May 2020 on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Consultation_on_a_European_Strate…
Cheers,
Dimi
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Consultation_on_the_White_Paper_o…
[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_on_the_re-use_of_public_sector_info…
tl;dr
The EU is by now in full COVID-19 crisis mode, the institutions are working
from home, including plenary sessions of the European Parliament that
allowed for the first time ever remote voting by email. Member States are
asking and will get an extension on all transposition deadlines and
legislative proposals as well as consultations - think platforms liability,
AI, data strategy, terrorist content - will certainly be delayed.
This and previous reports on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor
======
COVID-19 Delays
Talking to the European Commission these days you can hear varying
messages, from “Everything is on hold” to “The momentum is not lost”. Work
is continuing on most files, as even bureaucrats need to work on something
from home, but the pace is expected to drop significantly.
---
The Copyright Reform transposition deadline which is 7 June 2021 will be
postponed. This is not a measure specific to the Copyright in the Digital
Single Market Directive, but will be a general rule for all EU law. Some
Member States have asked the Commission for such a move and the Secretary
General has replied in the affirmative.
---
A consultation on the Digital Services Act (DSA), an initiative to reshape
the EU’s rules on platform liability that was supposed to be published by
the end of March has been delayed without a new indicative date. We might
still see a legislative proposal by the end of the year, but that is
looking like an uncertain bet.
---
Be more responsible: The credo that platforms need to be “more responsible”
is taking actual shape in the midst of the crisis. The large platforms,
often criticised for their dominant positions, are now becoming partners of
many national governments and the Commission. They are taking a much more
aggressive approach toward content moderation, prioritising government
information and throttling bandwidth usage. At the same time, they admit
that due to the moderation personnel shortages during the pandemics they
rely more and more on AI. That, as they themselves admit, may not be
perfect at all. The responsible Commissioner, French Thierry Breton, is
having regular calls with CEOs. In the past lawmakers have accused big tech
of being uncooperative while platforms have been fighting attempts at
government mandated content moderation. How this new dynamic will play once
we are back to the legislative drawing board remains to be seen, but the
politics of internet regulation have changed. There is talk that the
Commission would be willing to grant liability protections for platforms
that are more active in moderating content. Currently the inverse is the
case.
---
Meanwhile, MEP Petra Kammerevert (S&D DE) of the Culture Committee (CULT)
has published two committee draft opinions on the DSA. They are very brief
and highlight the key fundamental rules by which the EU should abide while
setting up the new rules, namely that automated systems should not replace
human review and that judicial overview needs to be ensured. The text also
suggests that a sector-specific approach would be wise. These drafts will
now be open to all MEPs from the relevant committees (the first one to
Legal AffairsCulture, the second to Civil Liberties) to propose amendments
before being voted on in committee and then plenary. A credible timeline is
not available, although rumour has it that JURI MEP Tiemo Woelken promised
to present under the EP’s consideration the so called own initiative report
he is in charge of, in time - end of May. . The CULT drafts are online:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/CULT-PA-648593_EN.pdfhttps://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/CULT-PA-648588_EN.pdf
---
On Artificial Intelligence the European Commission published a White Paper
and a respective public consultation. The original goal was to have a
legislative proposal by year’s end, but that’s of course unclear now. The
political will is to lay down rules for such technology before it becomes
as big and as dominant (and thus hard to regulate) as the largest online
platforms. It seems like the legislator is mainly looking for clear legal
requirements that are directed at the actors responsible for producing and
operating AI tools. At the same time they don’t want to scare off
investment and stifle innovation. We invite you to collaboratively draft
consultation answers with us!
White Paper:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/commission-white-paper-artificia…
Consultation:
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/white-paper-artificial-i…
Meta-Wiki Consultation Page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Consultation_on_the_White_Paper_o…
---
Terrorist Content Regulation (TERREG):Now that the trilogues are put on
hold due to the work-from-home mode, we still hear that conversations on
the file continue unofficially. This gives us time to weigh in, and it is
especially important in Member States. If you can, we need you to contact
your government about this as well as your relevant MEPs. Talking to
organisations that work with vulnerable groups is also useful. These could
be those working with refugees, minorities, whistleblowers; on climate
crisis, on counter-radicalisation, on human rights abuses. Their community
and work will be affected by these measures. They need to know this and
they need to get vocal now. Finally, if you know media organisations
(Reporters Without Borders, unions of journalists, etc.) and journalists
(reporters and investigative journalists as well) - same thing. Writing
about EU legislation is rarely the news of the day, but they should get
interested and speak to their government about protecting their space for
adequate reporting and sources.
As usual, we are happy to help with some who-is-who orientation for the
Members of European Parliament and for key talking points.
---
Fake News Fines in Hungary are a real thing now with the state of emergency
law passed by the parliament in Budapest yesterday. Individuals who
publicise what are viewed as untrue facts and which could interfere with
the protection of the public, or could alarm a large number of people can
now face fines and time in prison.
More on Politico:
https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-viktor-orban-rule-by-decree/ber of
people — now face several years in jail.
---
Big Fat Brussels Meeting
Our beloved EU policy meeting was postponed indefinitely due to the state
of emergency in Belgium. Depending on how the situation develops we will
either try to have a gathering at year’s end or switch the format and
replace it with issue-specific online discussions.
======
END
======