Hello!
As we are bracing for the hearings of the designated Commissioners in the
coming weeks, we are also keeping tabs on what seem to be the hot topics of
the season: Copyright & AI on one hand, and child protection & age
verification on the other.
Dimi & Michele
=== Considering Copyright & AI ===
We already teased this last month. It is a hot and versatile issue. How can
data be used for AI training under the EU’s text and data mining
exceptions? How can publishers who want to opt-out of this exception
technically do it? Are AI models respecting the rules? When is the
threshold for the protection of generated content crossed?
—
As the hearings are approaching, we are getting more insight into the
Commission's thinking. The new “digital supermo”, Finnish
Commissioner-designate Henna Virkkunen has answered written questions
<https://hearings.elections.europa.eu/documents/virkkunen/virkkunen_writtenq…>
from lawmakers. Virkunnen says she won’t rule out reopening the EU’s
copyright laws to tackle challenges posted by artificial intelligence. But
she insists that “licensing and mediation mechanisms” should be tried to
facilitate the relationship between creative industries and AI companies.
—
Meanwhile the EU AI Office gathered general-purpose AI model providers for
a dedicated workshop
<https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/first-workshop-general-purpos…>
where copyright has quickly become one of the two main topics, next to risk
mitigation.
—
Our analysis is that the EU is unlikely to steam towards a copyright or AI
Act reform this legislative period. But there will be various initiatives
targeted at pushing licencing deals. There have also been claims that some
large language AI models don’t respect the technical opt-out mchanism
<https://academic.oup.com/jiplp/article/19/5/453/7614898?login=false>
provided for in the EU’s text and data mining exception. The EU will try to
fix this, possibly through technical specifications.
=== Age-Verification & Child Protection ===
This is the second boiling pot of tech-related policy frenzy. Even
Virkkunen stated, in the above linked written Q&A, that she wants to focus
on “protection of minors online” as her number one priority when it comes
to Digital Services Act enforcement.
—
The European Parliament doesn’t have the power to initiate legislation, so
while the Commission makes up its mind, all it can do is own-initiative
reports and hearings. To little surprise, the powerful Internal Market and
Consumer Protection committee (IMCO) has decided to write a report on “the
protection of minors online”.
—
Member States are not sitting idly by. After Spain, Germany, France, Sweden
and Denmark have raised the topics in various ways (see past editions of
this newsletter), now it’s the turn of the Netherlands and Italy.
—
The lower chamber of the Dutch parliament passed a motion that requests its
government to “legally secure privacy-friendly and reliable age
verification for online gambling and websites with pornographic content".
—
The Italian Authority for Communications (AGCOM) announced
<https://igamingexpress.com/italys-agcom-enforces-mandatory-age-verification…>
that it wants to introduce age-verification systems for various platforms.
—
Our comment is that there are valid reasons and cases where governments
need to address child protection, including through age-verification. The
sale of alcohol and online financial credits being two very obvious
examples. Still, age-verification is not always the only and best way to
protect children across all online spaces. It comes with drawbacks such as
more personal data being gathered and limiting access. The Digital Services
Act seems to recognise that balance. It seems to suggest that different
approaches are needed for different types of services. Something we can
agree with.
=== Commissioner Hearings ===
The hearings of all the Commissioners are scheduled for 4-12 November. You
may see details and watch online, there’s a dedicated page
<https://elections.europa.eu/european-commission/en/programme/> now.
—
For us the most important hearing will be that of Finnish Henna Virkkunen.
We will also listen to Irish Michael McGrath (who will oversee fundamental
rights) and Maltese Glenn Micaleff (culture).
—
If everything goes as planned, the new Commission will start its regular
work on 1 December.
=== Geo-Blocking Consultation ===
A quick heads-up: the European Commission plans to open a call for evidence
and public consultation to support its evaluation of the 2018 Geo-blocking
Regulation. The public consultation
<https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/1…>
is currently listed as planned for the 2nd quarter of 2025.
==== From the Blog ====
-
Wikimedia Europe Partners for Research into Wikipedia’s Practices on
Information on Elections
<https://wikimedia.brussels/wikimedia-europe-partners-for-research-into-wiki…>
-
Prepped to the nines: Wikimedians gathered in Brussels to prepare for
public policy advocacy challenges
<https://wikimedia.brussels/prepped-to-the-nines-wikimedians-gathered-in-bru…>
===END===
--
Wikimedia Europe ivzw
Dear free knowledge friends,
I'm reaching out to share two advocacy campaigns that you might be
interested in joining. Both are run by allies of our movement and align
closely with our movement's goals.
___
*Campaign by Creative Commons: "Towards an Open Recommendation on Cultural
Heritage" (TAROCH**) *
This campaign is run by Creative Commons (Brigitte and Connor are in CC).
The goal is to pressure UNESCO to create an official legal instrument, a
"recommendation", which would promote open solutions to enable equitable
access to cultural heritage worldwide, in line with UNESCO’s broader
mission on openness and heritage-related policy goals. Such a
recommendation would make it easier for Wikimedians to convince local or
regional GLAM institutions to use open licenses. You can learn more about
the campaign via this blog post
<https://creativecommons.org/2024/08/19/we-want-to-create-an-enabling-policy…>
.
This campaign has existed for a while, and many Wikimedians from around the
world are already involved. @Patricia Diaz
<patricia.diaz(a)wikimediachile.cl> (Wikimedia
Chile) and Hardiansyah (Wikimedia Indonesia) are running two of the
workspaces, with Patricia co-leading the advocacy one and Hardiansyah
co-leading the civil society statement.
Get involved: CC just put out a call to officially form a TAROCH coalition.
To join:
1. Read the Statement of Commitment
<https://creativecommons-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/2nL3s7Iz_cjqtDaDhS6miiv_…>
&
submit your application through the membership application form
<https://creativecommons-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/23FZG5YQGkHkZQ4w6kMC6Z-z…>
2. Email @Eric Luth <eric.luth(a)wikimedia.se> (Wikimedia Sweden) to join
a call on *Thursday, October 24* at 22:00 UTC to join an effort to
coordinate across the Wikimedians interested in the campaign.
*Campaign by Frontiers Research Foundation: Open Science Charter *
Consider signing the Open Science Charter
<https://www.frontiersfoundation.org/open-science-charter> launched by
the Frontiers
Research Foundation <https://www.frontiersfoundation.org/> (read press
release
<https://www.frontiersin.org/news/2023/11/24/open-science-charter-makes-urge…>).
The
charter calls upon governments, research institutions, funders, and the
scientific community to support mandatory open access to all publicly
funded scientific knowledge by 2030.
The charter aligns with the work many Wikimedians do to strengthen trust in
and access to scientific knowledge, as well as the notion that the public
good should be prioritized. Among other things it calls for:
1. *Unrestricted access to scientific knowledge by 2030*: Commit to
transitioning all published research articles from subscription to fully
open-access models before the end of this decade.
2. *Uphold peer-review quality*: Preserve and champion the core values
of scientific publishing, including registration, validation,
certification, and perpetual conservation of scientific findings.
3. *Transparent pricing linked to quality*: Adopt transparent financial
models that directly correlate the price of publication with the quality of
services offered.
Get involved: You can read and sign the charter here
<https://www.frontiersfoundation.org/open-science-charter>. You can
sign either in your individual capacity or on behalf of an
organization. For questions and additional information about the initiative
please contact George Thomas at george.thomas(a)frontiersin.org ( in CC).
____
I hope you find these interesting and consider supporting one or both.
Have a lovely week,
Ziski
Franziska Putz (she/her)
Senior Movement Advocacy Manager
Global Advocacy, Wikimedia Foundation
Fputz(a)wikimedia.org
UTC Timezone
Dear all,
RightsCon 2025 is just around the corner. Registration has opened - this
will be a hybrid conference with excellent discussions that cover topics at
the forefront of digital rights. Those include five Wikimedia sessions.
If you are planning on joining online but have concerns about your internet
access, I highly recommend you apply for the RightsCon Connectivity Support
<https://act.accessnow.org/page/email/click/1921/7505962?email=Y1M0ZDgEKui5k…>
by *October 28th*. Make sure to check out our eligibility criteria,
timelines, and apply soon!
A taste of the type of sessions you can watch is below the line. We will be
publishing our annual blog post with all of the details of the Wikimedia
sessions once the dates and times for them are confirmed. Stay tuned!
All the best,
Ziski
___
- Intersectionality and Sustainability in Journalism: Experiences from
the Global South (InternetLab, OSF, Project Multatuli, WMF as facilitator)
- How do we use Wikimedia and open-source technology to preserve
cultural heritage in crisis? (Wikimedia Heritage Guard Network group)
- From countering to building: Finding the keys to promote information
integrity online (WMF and the Freedom Online Coalition)
- (Lightning Talk) Africa Knowledge Initiative: Revolutionizing access
to African indigenous languages (Ceslause Ogbonnaya, Igbo Wikimedians)
- (Lightning Talk) Empowering First Nations Digital Rights on Wikimedia
(Belinda Spry, WM Australia)
Franziska Putz (she/her)
Senior Movement Advocacy Manager
Global Advocacy, Wikimedia Foundation
Fputz(a)wikimedia.org
UTC Timezone
Dear friends,
The Wikimedia movement is showing up as a phenomenal force next week (Sept.
20 - 27) at the United Nations in New York City. This email provides an
overview of how our movement will be represented, what our goals are, and
how you can support us to achieve those goals.
Our main objective is to create an internet which upholds human rights and
protects community-led spaces online. We’ll do so by engaging in the final
process of implementing the Global Digital Compact
<https://www.un.org/en/summit-of-the-future/global-digital-compact>and
by hosting
an event
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/advocacy/power-of-the-commons-unga-event/>
that highlights the importance of Digital Public Goods like Wikipedia. The
member states will be asked to vote on the Global Digital Compact in the
General Assembly at the Summit of the Future.
____
WIKIMEDIA EVENT @ SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE ACTION DAYS (Sept. 20 - 21)
-
What: The Summit of the Future Action Days
<https://www.un.org/en/summit-of-the-future/action-days#:~:text=20%20%E2%80%….>
exist to provide additional opportunities for engagement across civil
society, academia, and the private sector. The focus is on multistakeholder
partnerships, emphasizing the need for collective action to build a more
inclusive and networked multilateral system.
-
Wikimedia is hosting an official side event: “The Power of the Commons:
Digital Public Goods for a More Secure, Inclusive, and Resilient World.”
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/advocacy/power-of-the-commons-unga-event/>
The event is on Sept. 21 @ 11:15 - 12:30 PM EDT. This is a massive win
for us and it came from real teamwork! It is co-sponsored by the UN Member
State Delegations of Germany, Mexico, and Poland, and the UN Office of
the Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology
<https://www.un.org/techenvoy/>, as well as the organizations Access Now
<https://www.accessnow.org/>, TUM Think Tank
<https://tumthinktank.de/>, Network
of Centers <https://networkofcenters.net/>, Wikimedia Deutschland
<https://www.wikimedia.de/>, Wikimedia Czech Republic
<https://www.wikimedia.cz/en/>, Wikimedia Polska
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Polska>, Wikimedia UK
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/>, and Wikimedia Europe
<https://wikimedia.brussels/>.
-
👉 How you can help: Amplify the event by sharing our social media posts
and event details ahead of time. Here’s our social media toolkit
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lXSdfbEWudb06jEvpomWxIINUQAr-k1GADus2tA…>.
Unfortunately registration has closed for in person participation, but
we will share a link to follow the livestream once available.
GLOBAL DIGITAL COMPACT DISCUSSION @ SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE (Sept. 22 - 23)
-
What: The Summit of the Future
<https://www.un.org/en/summit-of-the-future> exists to reaffirm
commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
<https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/> while laying the
foundations for a reinvigorated multilateral system. The Summit will result
in a negotiated Pact for the Future and Global Digital Compact.
GDC CAMPAIGN CLOSING DEBRIEF CALL (Oct. 17)
-
Details: Thursday, October 17th @ 14:00 - 15:30 UTC (check local time
<https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1729173600>).
Join Zoom Meeting
https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/81192370706
Meeting ID: 811 9237 0706
-
Why: The GDC has been an important example of how we collaborate as a
movement to engage policymakers. We want to take our learnings from this to
apply to our future advocacy efforts. Help us capture our successes to
replicate and challenges to solve on a debrief call.
-
What: 90-minute Zoom call in which we will recap what happened at UNGA
and have a capacity building portion. For the UNGA recap, we will cover how
our messaging landed, what corridor conversations were had, and what we’re
taking forward from this experience). We will take the GDC campaign as a
case study to review how to develop a campaign strategy around a specific
event.
-
Who: The call will be open to all members of the advocacy network so we
can continue to learn from each other. The call will be recorded - you can
email Ziski Putz for access to the recording.
__
Thank you in advance for your support!
All the best,
Ziski
Franziska Putz (she/her)
Senior Movement Advocacy Manager
Global Advocacy, Wikimedia Foundation
Fputz(a)wikimedia.org
UTC Timezone