The French government has vowed to invest money in the commons. Rub your
eyes, read it again and then continue reading below.
====================
DIGITAL COMMONS
====================
It still surprises us to be able to put “French government” and “investment
in the digital commons” together, but here we go: The French Presidency of
the Council of the EU came up with a plan how the old continent can compete
with dominant US tech companies. The plan is to have more “digital
commons”, which can be anything open source, including software, code
libraries, tools, repositories. The basic thinking is that if fundamental
tools and libraries are accessible to all players, this will level the
playing field. [1]
—
19 EU Member Countries and the Commission presented the idea of digital
commons at the Digital Assembly in Toulouse. They acknowledge that there
are many instances of working digital commons, but also point out that
oftentimes projects lack long-term, structural support. The plan envisages
financial help and a “one-stop-shop” to find government support. [2]
—
Funds in the ballpark of tens of millions of euros are already pledged, but
the concrete details are still in the making. Thanks to the leadership of
Wikimédia France, our movement and a group of partners (Europeana,
Communia, OpenStreetMap) are part of this conversation from the start. We
especially want to show that governments can often help by removing legal
and administrative obstacles, not just by peddling money. [3]
======
CSAM
======
We wrote about the proposal of the Commission to regulate the online
moderation of “Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)” in last month’s report
[4]. While it is a very important issue to tackle, we do have great
concerns with parts of the text, especially provisions that would allow
scanning all online chats on a given platform. We are still analysing how
exactly, if at all, this would impact Wikimedia projects. In the meantime,
we can offer a short briefing. [5]
—
On the legislative side, the start feels very bumpy: The European
Parliament probably won’t refer the file to a committee until September or
October, while ample criticism is pouring in, including from the German
government. [6]
=========
Net Neutrality
=========
The European Commission plans to push out a new legislative proposal after
the summer that is expected to include provisions forcing some service
providers to pay for data traffic (think Facebook and Netflix paying
Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica). While this is a classic example of a
lobbying battle between very large telecommunications companies and very
large tech companies, it also would violate some basic principles of net
neutrality. A group of civil society organisations, led by EDRi, sent a
letter to the relevant Commissioners outlining the main issues. [7]
—
On the bright side, BEREC, the EU’s body of telecoms regulators, has
updated its net neutrality guidelines to close some loopholes and
effectively ban zero rating of data for some applications. [8]
=============
Disinformation
=============
The European Commission has presented an updated Code of Practice on
Disinformation. [9] Wikimedia had not signed up the original Code, because
we deemed it was mainly focused on “follow the money”, hence where
disinformation is spread through advertising and paid reach. The version
will allow researchers more access to data of large platforms and again
focus on advertising.
—
The Code of Practice is a voluntary initiative for online platforms, but
taking part in it essentially removes some obligations under the newly
created Digital Services Act.
=============
Italian Dramas
=============
The Italian government published new draft guidelines about public data
(open government) and opened a consultation. [10] They basically state that
open government and open data provisions don’t apply to institutions
related to culture, which is a very Italian thing. We wonder if this is in
line with the Public Sector Information Directive and will investigate with
Wikimedia Italia, which are also participating in the consultation.
—
The Italian government has been on a roll. It also published the draft
national digitisation plan. It would establish an administrative fee for
the commercial use of all public domain digitisations of cultural
institutions. It essentially outlaws CC0 as a relevant license for most
GLAMs in the country and circumvents the public domain safeguard enshrined
in the latest copyright directive. There was a public consultation until 15
June which Wikimedia Italy and partners participated in. Expect blog posts
on Diff and on wikimedia.brussels soon.
=============
Polish & Czech Copyright Reforms
=============
The Czech copyright reform is in parliament. We have a Czech language copy.
[11] The Polish government published its proposal, which will go to
parliament very soon. We have a rough English translation. [12] If you
consider yourself a copyright geek, enjoy reading them. If you want to help
our national partners advocating on this, get in touch! :)
====
END
====
[1]https://twitter.com/AmbNum/status/1540657835427741699
[2]
https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/politique-etrangere-de-la-france/diplomat…
[3]
https://www.wikimedia.fr/pour-un-developpement-des-communs-numeriques-a-lec…
[4]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/publicpolicy@lists.wikimedia.or…
[5]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dD5AF8-uk2LFG7mu62AK7S80H4CrF1ftV7lheE6…
[6]
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/06/27/germany-says-hell-no-to-eu-proposal-to-…
[7]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Q4d13xqr5UsPkoSMw7d_3YL-hZnq4cL/view?usp=…
[8]https://fossbytes.com/europe-bans-zero-rating-internet-offers/
[9]https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_3664
[10]
https://www.agid.gov.it/it/agenzia/stampa-e-comunicazione/notizie/2022/06/1…
.
[11]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J7dvl4yEk6ScWIIypdI6Uq_7273T7G5i/edit?u…
[12]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N0ArQkgpZkQQcdpsidS_Yc-bS5liQsl5/view?usp=…
--
Wikimedia Belgium vzw
BE 0563.775.480
- RPR Brussel
Antwerpselaan 40
Boulevard d’Anvers 1000 Brussel/Bruxelles
www.wikimedia.be
<https://www.wikimedia.be/>
info(a)wikimedia.be <mailto:info@wikimedia.be>
Dear Friends,
a slight time change to our event - please see below and sign up (those
that haven't yet):
Wikimedia Movement and the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU *announce a
change in time* of the Monsters of Law event featuring
*First Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union*
*Maciej Szpunar*
titled:
*New Technologies and Fundamental Rights*
on *June 27th at 18:00*
*Townhall Europe, square de Meeus 5-6 in Brussels*
After the presentation and Q&A we would love you to stay for an apéro.
First Advocate General Maciej Szpunar will talk about various aspects of
the law of new technologies from the perspective of EU Law. It will concern
in particular: injunctions against intermediaries, the concepts of
communication to the public and territoriality, along with the changing
nature of services and their “uberisation”.
The event will not be recorded or streamed to ensure a lively exchange and
inspiring discussion. Thank you to those who already confirmed their
attendance.
*Those who haven’t can still R.S.V.P! *
In the Monsters of Law <https://monstersoflaw.brussels/> series we ask
academics and practitioners of law how the intersections of technology and
law shape our everyday life. They answer with examples and perspectives
that help us navigate the interesting times of technological
transformation, both practically and from the policy perspective.
Looking forward to seeing you at the event!
--
Anna Mazgal
Senior EU Policy Advisor
Wikimedia
http://wikimedia.brussels
@a2na
mobile: +32 487 222 945
12 Rue Belliard
BE-1040 Brussels
--
Wikimedia Belgium vzw
BE 0563.775.480
- RPR Brussel
Antwerpselaan 40
Boulevard d’Anvers 1000 Brussel/Bruxelles
www.wikimedia.be
<https://www.wikimedia.be/>
info(a)wikimedia.be <mailto:info@wikimedia.be>
Dear fellow free knowledge supporters!
The WMF Global Advocacy team has just released our "Don't Blink" blog post which covers what our team has been working on during the month of May.
In this monthly retrospective we review the most important developments that have preoccupied us and the actions we’ve taken to advance
fundamental rights online. We’ll also highlight the team’s work to protect the public-interest Internet, and our vision of an online ecosystem in which everyone can freely produce, access, share and remix information.
Our May recap was just posted.
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/06/13/dont-blink-public-policy-snapshot-for…>.
Highlights include:
* Deep dive analysis of the Australian Basic Online Safety Expectations
* Comments to US Copyright Office’s public inquiry
* United Kingdom (UK) government to protect internet access in Russia
* Launch of our team's monthly conversation hours (June 29 & July 1)
We hope you enjoy the read!
Warmly,
Ziski & The Global Advocacy Team
Dear Friends,
it is my pleasure to extend the following invitation to you:
Wikimedia Movement and the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU have the
pleasure to invite you to a presentation by
*First Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union*
*Maciej Szpunar*
titled:
*New Technologies and Fundamental Rights*
on *June 27th at 17:00*
*Townhall Europe, square de Meeus 5-6 in Brussels*
After the presentation and Q&A we would love you to stay for an apéro.
Due to capacity limits, kindly R.S.V.P. until June 15th.
In the Monsters of Law <https://monstersoflaw.brussels/> series we ask
academics and practitioners of law how the intersections of technology and
law shape our everyday life. They answer with examples and perspectives
that help us navigate the interesting times of technological
transformation, both practically and from the policy perspective.
Looking forward to seeing you at the event!
--
--
Anna Mazgal
Senior EU Policy Advisor
Wikimedia
http://wikimedia.brussels
@a2na
mobile: +32 487 222 945
12 Rue Belliard
BE-1040 Brussels
--
Wikimedia Belgium vzw
BE 0563.775.480
- RPR Brussel
Antwerpselaan 40
Boulevard d’Anvers 1000 Brussel/Bruxelles
www.wikimedia.be
<https://www.wikimedia.be/>
info(a)wikimedia.be <mailto:info@wikimedia.be>
Dear digital rights and free knowledge supporters,
A major event in the month of June is RightsCon...and Wikimedia is showing up big!
Wikipedians will be hosting and/or participating in a total of ten sessions at RightsCon this week. Members of our movement will be championing Wikimedia approaches on emerging challenges to a free and open internet, including privacy and surveillance, internet access, inclusion, and internet shutdowns and disruptions.
You can find details and brief descriptions for all of the sessions below. You can also learn more about how we're showing up at and supporting RightsCon'22 in this blog post: https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/06/02/meet-the-wikimedians-promoting-free-k…
We hope to see you there!
Best,
Ziski & the Global Advocacy team
_____
1) How lawmakers in Southeast Asia can safeguard human rights while addressing online disinformation during elections
Date: Wednesday, June 8 at 12:30 AM EDT
Format: Panel
Presenters: Rachel Arinii Judhistari (Wikimedia Foundation), Kristina Gadaingan (ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights), Members of Parliament from the Philippines and Thailand
Details: This interactive panel seeks to broaden the discussion about human rights safeguards within internet regulation regimes in Southeast Asia, especially the nuances surrounding online campaigning and the rising threat of disinformation, how they influence political conversations, and also potentially undermine electoral processes. The panel will pose these questions to the members of parliaments, civil society, and platform hosts. It will allow participants to contribute to the free-flowing discussion, and to provide perspectives from their own experiences and contexts as well.
2) Fighting disinformation in Persian Wikipedia: The good, the bad, the AI
Date: Thursday, June 9 at 4:30 AM EDT
Format: Tech Demo
Presenter: Amir Sarabadani (Wikimedian)
Details: This tech demo covers two tools that members of Persian Wikipedia developed to combat government disinformation campaigns. These tools have made it possible to share and update information on Persian Wikipedia without the fear of persecution. As such, they have become crucial to foster the resilience of Persian Wikipedia and may inspire other groups to bring similar initiatives back to their communities.
3) #WikiforHumanRights: Creating and editing human rights content on Wikipedia
Date: Thursday, June 9 at 12:15 PM EDT
Format: Workshop
Presenters: Faisal Da Supremo (Wikimedia Ghana), Kolawole Oyewole (Wiki Fan Club, and Lagos State University), Iván Martínez (Wikimedia México), Luisina Ferrante (Wikimedia Argentina), Alex Stinson (Wikimedia Foundation)
Details: This workshop will introduce participants to the basic skills needed to create and edit human rights content on Wikipedia. Experienced Wikipedians will teach basic editing skills, share best practices around citing reputable sources, and answer participants’ questions during this interactive session. Participants are encouraged to identify articles on human rights concepts or content that are lacking or need to be bolstered in their linguistic communities before the session. The session will provide open editing time for participants to create or edit content on their selected topics with the assistance of experienced Wikipedians. It will conclude with a review of best practices, an update on the #WikiForHumanRights campaign, and a question and answer period.
4) Using Wikipedia to advance human rights and democracy, using constructive conflict to create quality articles
Date: Thursday, June 9 at 2:45 PM EDT
Format: Workshop
Presenters: Luisinia Ferrante (Wikimedia Argentina), Spencer Graves (Wikimedian), Franziska Putz (Wikimedia Foundation)
Details: This workshop will demonstrate how controversy can be a productive force behind “the wisdom of crowds” that makes it possible for websites like Wikipedia to share freely accessible information online. Case studies on Spanish, Chinese, French, and English Wikipedia articles will demonstrate how their development was informed by social, economic, and political debates in each of the contexts they describe as well as by the different perspectives and approaches between volunteer editors. This session will expose participants to the experience of co-creating knowledge about human rights online.
5) No “right” approach, but many effective ones: Moderation approaches for online information about political processes
Date: Friday, June 10 at 8:00 AM EDT
Format: Workshop
Presenters: Patricia Díaz-Rubio (Wikimedia Chile), Kate Levan (Wikimedia Foundation), Nathan Forrester (Wikimedia Foundation)
Details: This immersive workshop brings together organizations with unique, community-led moderation approaches in order to present participants with case studies on disinformation around electoral processes. Panelists will engage participants in analyzing the issues at hand, discussing challenges to moderating specific content, and will then walk the audience through the moderation process employed in their context. The goal of the session is for the audience to experience how hard the job is, as well as the variety of effective approaches there are to content moderation, debunking the idea that there is a single, perfect process for moderating online spaces.
In addition to these Wikimedia Foundation-organized events, Wikimedians will be hosting and participating in the following sessions, as well:
6) Empowering Community Content Moderation
Date: Tuesday, June 7 at 1:30 PM EDT
Format: Panel
Presenters: Jessica Ashooh (Reddit), Rose Coogan (Github), Allison Davenport (Wikimedia Foundation), Guillaume Rischard (OpenStreetMap Foundation)
Details: The panel will feature policy leadership from a variety of platforms with community content moderation, who will discuss best practices for fostering effective, scalable, and rights-based community content moderation online. Along with touching on the advantages of community moderation, the panel will also discuss challenges with the model, and how policies for digital communication can leave room for individuals to participate in effective self-regulation, collaboration, and good faith moderation of online content.
7) Building a digital rights initiative in the Caribbean
Date: Tuesday, June 7 at 4:15 PM EDT
Format: Social Hour
Presenters: Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group, JAAKLAC initiative, AfroCrowd, Access Now
Details: Social hours are an informal space where participants with common interests can connect and expand a network or coalition. There is no participation limit, so come along!
8) The danger of neglecting “non-lucrative” languages
Date: Wednesday, June 8 at 10:00 AM EDT
Format: Lightning Talk
Presenters: Anass Sedrati (Wikimedia Morocco)
Details: Having access to information in your mother tongue is a basic human right. Wikimedia projects may be doing well compared to other actors, but how can they be improved as well? Although languages in the digital world are not represented equally, Wikimedia projects have helped to represent more languages online, since the only prerequisites to have a Wikipedia in a particular language is an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) code and an active community. Yet even on Wikipedia projects this process is imperfect. This lightning talk explores the fraught manner in which languages are represented online, and puts forward the argument that more individuals need to be involved in enriching Wikimedia content, and in diversifying the languages that are represented on other platforms.
9) When you can’t see your city (online): Why you don’t want a country without Freedom of Panorama (FOP)
Date: Wednesday, June 8 at 10:30 PM EDT
Format: Lightning Talk
Presenters: Ramzy Muliawan (Wikimedia Indonesia)
Details: This lightning talk examines the freedom of panorama (FOP), and how the absence of this limitation on copyright threatens the implementation of Wikimedia’s 2030 strategy to “provide for safety and inclusion,” especially in countries where Wikimedia communities are emerging. The talk will review the existing freedom of panorama regulations (or lack thereof) in Indonesia, and propose to Wikimedia organizations and communities in Indonesia, as well as other emerging Wikimedia communities and like-minded partners, how to best navigate the muddy waters of the clash between the underdeveloped policy landscape and the ever-changing nature of online efforts to preserve and free knowledge.
10) Regulation for the few or many?
Date: Thursday, June 9 at 10:45 AM EDT
Format: Panel
Presenters: Caroline Greer (TikTok), Konstantinos Komaitis (The New York Times), Rebecca MacKinnon (Wikimedia Foundation), Jillian York (EFF), Eliška Pírková (AccessNow)
Details: This panel will discuss the risks associated with policymakers and legislators around the world crafting legislation with a small subset of large companies in mind. The panelists will discuss the theme using the latest policy development initiatives and practical examples. What is the impact on the broader tech ecosystem of one-size-fits-all laws? How can we ensure equitable policymaking that works for users as well? The session seeks to make recommendations on how the risks can be minimized, and how we can evolve to a more sophisticated model of tech policy- and lawmaking.
*Plenty of news from national processes this month: Romania and Lithuania
have passed their copyright reforms, Czechia is on its way. Denmark sort of
tried to regulate online platforms on top of what the EU is doing, but
pulled back. Italy is trying to make everyone pay for the use of public
domain works. Meanwhile in Brussels, the DSA is still being worked on and a
new proposal to tackle child sexual abuse material is raising some
uncomfortable questions. *
====================
DIGITAL SERVICES ACT
====================
Post-Deal Editing: Remember how the French Presidency of the Council wanted
to get a deal done so badly, it pushed the Parliament and Member States to
accept a “political deal” putting the main cornerstones in place. [1]
However, a “technical deal” is still being negotiated. As part of this, the
Council presented a series of changes to the Recitals of the Regulation.
[2] The Recitals are opening paragraphs that lay down the intention of the
legislation.
—
Stay-Down Anger: One particular change was in a recital that indirectly
opens the door for so-called “stay-down provisions”. Meaning a platform
would have to re-scan its uploads constantly to make sure certain content
doesn’t re-appear. The issue here is similar to that of “upload filters”
and the fact that it is impossible to do without monitoring everything. At
the same time the courts have ruled against general monitoring obligations
and the DSA was so far staying clear of such provisions. On the civil
society side Wikimedia, EDRi, AccessNow and EFF communicated to lawmakers
that this is problematic. Industry associations also raised the issue,
while inside the European Parliament the Liberals and Greens groups pushed
back. The result is that the text will now be re-worked. So another round
of negotiations.
======
CSAM
======
Sensitive Issue: The European Commission has published its proposal for a
“Regulation on Fighting child sexual abuse: detection, removal and
reporting of illegal content online.” [3] The debate around this is very
tricky and cannot be allowed to escalate to copyright levels. The issue
boils down to this: How much self-policing and monitoring of users content
should platforms be required to do? How far-reaching should the content
blocking and removal powers of authorities be?
—
Proposal Cornerstones: The regulation suggests that platforms should
perform a risk analysis every three years on how vulnerable they are to
such abuse material and grooming. Based on this they should draw up a
mitigation plan. These analyses and mitigation measures are to be public.
Apart from that a designated national authority of the Member State where
the service provider is represented may ask a court or independent
administrative body (depending on the country) to issue detection or
removal orders. Both orders would require scanning for child sexual abuse
content, normally provided by a EU Centre to be established in The Hague. A
designated national authority may also ask for an order to internet service
providers to block URLs. This last provision also seems rather problematic
for a number of reasons, including the method and technology mentioned and
the lack of safeguards on the national level.
—
Private Chats: The most controversial parts of the Regulation are beyond
what covers Wikimedia projects. Detection and removal orders would also
cover providers of interpersonal communications, i.e. instant messaging.
Which would mean that if a detection order is issued, such providers would
have to scan each private conversation for the hashes of specific CSA
material. Again an issue with general monitoring. This is the main apple of
discord.
====================
Open Data Consultation
====================
The Open Data Directive (formerly known as the Public Sector Information
Directive) [4] allows the European Commission to lay down a list of
high-value datasets that must be opened up by authorities for re-use. They
have now published the draft implementation act containing this list, which
includes geographic, climate and industrial statistics data, for instance.
Feedback is open until 21 June. [5] We have in the past shared our position
not only on the types of data to be opened, but also on the quality
requirements for such datasets. [6] It is good to see some of it in the
proposal and we are likely to reiterate some of the points in the current
consultation. If you are interested in working on the submission with us,
get in touch!
=========
Italy
=========
Two weeks ago the Italian government published a draft national
digitisation plan and opened a public consultation until June 15th. This is
bad news for Wikimedia projects. The most worrisome elements are:
1. The plan doesn’t recognise Creative Commons Zero as a relevant license
for GLAMs. There is an explicit delegitimisation of this license.
2. The plan proposes to release all public domain content of cultural
institutions by default under a MIC BY NC license (MIC stands for the
Italian Ministry of Culture). The non-commercial restriction is apparently
not based on copyright, but on an administrative right that allows cultural
institutions to require a fee for commercial uses of heritage they manage,
even if it is under public domain.
3. The most important issue for Wikimedia is the specific reference to
Wikimedia Commons, which says that if you re-use Italian cultural heritage
content from there, you need to pay a fee to the Ministry of Culture.
—
Wikimedia Italia is in the process of gathering a coalition on this and
responding to the proposal but also kicking off a public campaign. The
Wikimedia Foundation and us in Brussels are engaged and will try to help.
It might be useful to raise this issue in international media (even if
specialised outlets), so if you have any contacts or platforms in your
country, please consider writing about it. Else, there should be more
information, including blog posts, about this soon.
=========
Denmark
=========
In April the Danish government put forth a legislative proposal for the
regulation of online platforms independent of the DSA. The gist of the law
is that social media platforms, generally defined as platforms with the
purpose of creating a profile and browsing other profiles and
user-submitted content with over 80.000 yearly users in Denmark, will be
obliged to take down illegal content within 24 hours of reporting. The
proposal contains an almost verbatim copy of the encyclopedia carveout of
the DSM directive.
—
Wikimedia Denmark sent a letter [7] to the legislative committee handling
the proposal. They addressed four main points:
(1) the breadth of the online encyclopedia exemption,
(2) the definition of "illegal content", which I argued was very broad and
could end with some undesirable scenarios where platforms would have to
e.g. enforce libel law on behalf of private parties,
(3) the risk of over-removal, which had already been addressed by a civil
rights org and
(4) protecting modération citoyenne. The letter is here in Danish:
<https://t.co/GMc2DEtQHI>
—
The parliamentary committee sent a question to the government based on this
letter. In the meantime, the government was told by the European Commission
that they wouldn't approve of this type of legislation so close to the DSA
coming into force, so the proposal is pulled back for now. It may or may
not resurface in the future, we will watch the space.
=============================
Copyright Directive Transposition
=============================
Both Romania and Lithuania have updated their copyright laws in the past
two months. You may take a glimpse at the machine translated English
versions of the texts for yourself [8][9]. You probably won’t, so here are
two highlights: Both countries have introduced full-fledged copyright
exceptions for parody and pastiche for all uses (not just uses on UGC
platforms as required by the directive). Also, both countries have adopted
the public domain safeguard. For a more in-depth (and fun) analysis, check
out Communia’s Eurovision DSM contest site [10] later today. We partnered
with ApTi (a EDRi member) in Romania and with the Baltic Audiovisual
Archival Council in Lithuania to follow the process and participate in
consultations.
—
Czech Republic: The amendment to the Copyright Act, which transposes the
Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market into the Czech law, has
reached the Chamber of Deputies. It will now be discussed by the relevant
committees. Open Content CZ (they are also the local Creative Commons
chapter) and WMCZ are following the process.
====
END
====
[1]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/publicpolicy@lists.wikimedia.or…
[2]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_DDJQ0pK756rWrmCI7qGZ5o24mJPeWs2/edit?u…
[3]https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_2976
[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_on_the_re-use_of_public_sector_info…
[5]
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/1…
[6]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZcaqQPOR083qBikCYSNfpVgUf-s29apL/view?usp=…
[7]https://ft.dk/samling/20211/lovforslag/L146/bilag/15/2567190.pdf
[8]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rmRyq5MPMoREmlbVB_Xle6tpwf3c88IZ4650Ibn…
[9]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SYWbt38YvDEsQCnBTF1QVT0QLE-I-MUkQX_snRq…
[10]https://eurovision.communia-association.org/