Hi everyone.
Some might remember the 2019 recast of the EU PSI Directive (which is now
also called Open Data Directive) which has a nice round number EU/2019/1024
(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/1024/oj). As a directive, it has
been transposed in EU member states and is also transposed/about to be
transposed into the EFTA states.
I was involved in the 2019 recast as a member of the staff of MEP Felix
Reda who wrote the opinion in the IMCO committee of the European Parliament
(the leading committee was ITRE:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-8-2018-0438_EN.html#_sectio…
)
The Directive has both a general principle on the reuse of content but also
paragraph about how to process requests for re-use.
Germany transposed the PSI-OD-Directive into the "Datennutzungsgesetz" in
2021 but left out the processing part for requests for re-use. I spoke to a
civil servant in the responsible ministry who was involved in the drafting
process and she stated that this was by design. Since the "general
principle" on re-use applies, there would be no use for requests any more.
This idea has been rejected by academic literature which still claims that
the possibility for requests remain embedded in the law
Long story short: After reading the literature, the directive and the law,
I believe that Germany has introduced a law that would allow liberating
content for re-use under license terms compatible with Wikimedia projects.
For a few weeks now, I have put this theory to the test and I have applied
for usage rights for various government documents, pictures etc. This has
been largely successful, but not without hickups. People in the
administration are usually confused by these requests and it takes them a
while to process them.
I would be interested to learn if anyone else in any other EU/EFTA state
has ever used the PSI-OD-Directive (and the transposed law) to force
government entities to release content under a free license.
This was the most concise way of describing this for me. I left out many
details in order to not turn this into a long paper. I am happy to
elaborate on details if requested.
Mathias
(there are some exceptions in the directive. GLAM institutions are not
fully within the scope of all parts of the directive and it is not as
simple to simply go to a museum or a library and tell them to give you a
license for stuff they own. Public broadcasting it also out of scope)
Hello everyone,
As Wikimedia Deutschland, we have been part of the *"Bündnis F5" - F5
Alliance for digital policy for the common good <https://buendnis-f5.de/>*
since 2021. We founded this digital policy alliance with AlgorithmWatch,
Society for civic rights, Open Knolwedge Foundation Deutschland and
Reporters Without Borders to jointly develop more political weight for our
shared objectives. The core of our work is a structured dialog with
policymakers on digital policy issues, such as framework conditions for
free access to information, privacy, open data, transparency and hate
speech online.
As alliance F5, we have compiled political positions on the EU elections.
They show what measures and laws we believe are needed to realize the
vision of an open, free, reliable, sustainable and secure internet. The
positions were sent to EU candidates and selected officials, such as
European and international digital policy officers, as well as advertised
on social media and form the basis for related discussions.
*You can find them on Wikimedia Commons here:*
Political positions on the EU elections (English)
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Positions_of_the_F5_alliance_on_the…>
Political positions on the EU elections (German)
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Positionen_des_B%C3%BCndnis_F5_zur_…>
...and as pdf attached.
*The central points of our demands paper are:*
- Platforms: Regulate and restructure
- Artificial intelligence: Fair and sustainable
- Open source software & open hardware: Foundation of the future
- Strengthen privacy, protect journalists
- Digital Knowledge Act: A new era of free knowledge
Wikimedia has focused on the 5th point of the Digital Knowledge Act, in
line with the demands of Wikimedia Europe. Please do not hesitate to
contact us if you have any questions on this.
A recommendation in this context: Last week, re:publica
<https://re-publica.com/de>, Europe's largest conference on digital rights,
took place in Berlin. We were lucky enough to have Rebecca MacKinnon there
to discuss the Global Digital Compact on a high-level panel:
- Renata Dwan (Special Adviser Office of the UN Secretary-General's
Envoy on Technology), Rebecca MacKinnon (Vice President, Global
Advocacy, Wikimedia Foundation), Jens Matthias Lorentz (Head of Digital
Politics and AI in Foreign Policy Group, Ministry of Foreign Affairs),
Jeanette Hofmann (Director at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for
Internet and Society and Professor of Internet Policy):
*Who cares about international digital policy? What do we expect from
the UN Global Digital Compact 2024
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxMmt4XCYro> (English)*
best regards
Lilli & team politics and public sector at WMDE
--
Lilli Iliev *(sie)*
Leitung Politik und öffentlicher Sektor
head of public policy and public sector
@lilliiliev@eupolicy.social
-----------------------------
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Geschichten rund um Wikimedia, Wikipedia und Freies Wissen im Newsletter: Zur
Anmeldung <https://www.wikimedia.de/newsletter/>.
------------------------------
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http://wikimedia.de Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder Mensch an
der Menge allen Wissens frei teilhaben kann.
Helfen Sie uns dabei! http://spenden.wikimedia.de/
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Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin,
Steuernummer 27/029/42207. Geschäftsführende Vorstände: Franziska
Heine, Dr. Christian Humborg.
Dear all,
With Wikimania 2025 fast approaching, I'm delighted to share an excellent
resource that came out of Wikimania 2024.
The report
<https://openfuture.eu/publication/open-movements-commons-causes/> from the
Common(s) Causes day zero event has been published.
The report maps current threats and opportunities facing the open movement.
It is based on the ongoing work of the organizations behind the Common(s)
Cause event: Creative Commons, Open Knowledge Foundation, Open Future, and
Wikimedia Europe (in collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation).
All of the findings are highly relevant to your work as Wikimedians
interested in policy advocacy. One that stood out in particular: the call
for a shared advocacy agenda, which could help ensure that Knowledge
Commons are treated and sustained as critical digital infrastructures. The
report identifies opportunities such as:
1. (Re)defining openness in a new technological era.
2. Creation of a shared advocacy strategy and enhanced regional and
thematic cooperation across the organizations.
3. Developing and testing governance approaches for our digital commons.
4. Advancing openness and sustainability for the technology, data,
content, and governance of Digital Public Infrastructure.
Thank you to our friends in the open movement for hosting such an important
event at Wikimania and for bringing us together!
Enjoy the read and resources.
Best,
Ziski
Franziska Putz (she/her)
Senior Movement Advocacy Manager
Global Advocacy, Wikimedia Foundation
Fputz(a)wikimedia.org
UTC Timezone
Hello!
Traditionally we don’t send out a monitoring report at the end of December.
However, with the DSA, child protection, copyright and AI, plenty has piled
up. So we decided to give you an update, in order to start 2025 with clear
structure in our heads.
Dimi & Michele
=== DSA ===
Consultation: Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) are supposed to give
researchers access to their data under Europe’s content moderation law
(Digital Services Act, DSA). The European Commission will issue additional
rules
<https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/1…>
and is currently consulting on them. Naturally civil society and academics
worry VLOPs will be too restrictive, while platforms worry about extra
work and data protection. The Wikimedia Foundation’s reply is published
<https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/1…>
.
—
Challenges: Six platforms are challenging the Commission’s decision
designating them as “very large”: Pornhub, XNXX, Stripchat, XVideos and
Zalando.
—
Proceedings: As a regulator, the Commission has open proceedings against
TikTok, X, AliExpress, Facebook, Instagram and Temu. The challenges are
regarding advertising, dark patterns, illegal content and protection of
minors. [Data compiled by Euractiv.
<https://www.euractiv.com/section/tech/news/dsa-audit-score-card-how-are-big…>
]
=== Child Protection ===
CSAM in Council: The Hungarian Presidency forced governments in the Council
to reveal their position on the proposed CSAM
<https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52022PC0209>
regulation. The main argument is around a provision that mandates the
scanning of all private chats for CSA materials. The results are that
Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Czechia, Poland,
Estonia, Finland and Belgium would be against, mainly citing that it would
amount to surveillance.
=== Copyright ===
Opt-out exceptions: The Copyright Directive allows AI crawlers to tap into
any publicly accessible content, as long as the rights holders have not
opted out (through a technical mechanism that is currently being reviewed).
However this doesn’t always seem to work smoothly. The French tech lobby
now suggests <https://www.francedigitale.org/en/posts/gen-ai-and-copyright>
dropping the opt-out mechanism in the text and data mining exception and
moving to an extended licensing scheme.
—
UK Consultation: The UK government has opened a consultation on copyright
and artificial intelligence
<https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/copyright-and-artificial-intell…>.
WMUK will participate.
==== AI Liability Directive ====
The AI Liability Directive
<https://commission.europa.eu/business-economy-euro/doing-business-eu/contra…>
was proposed back in 2022, but lawmakers decided to hold off on it while
the AI Act was getting hammered out. It would aim to close some gaps not
covered by other laws. Now the question is whether to proceed at all. The
European Commission and parts of the EU Parliament, including Axel Voss (DE
EPP) who claims he was less regulation for companies, want to proceed.
Other parts of the European Parliament (including other German EPP members)
and the Council are against. The first months of 2025 will be decisive to
see if this gets off the ground.
==== From the Blog ====
-
Deep Dive: The New von der Leyen Commission
<https://wikimedia.brussels/deep-dive-the-new-von-der-leyen-commission/>
-
The worrisome phenomenon of SLAPPs in Europe: the new 2024 CASE Report
<https://wikimedia.brussels/the-worrisome-phenomenon-of-slapps-in-europe-the…>
===END===
--
Wikimedia Europe ivzw