Hello!
Things in Brussels are slowing down. The co-leiglsators are formally
adopting the last reforms, while the Belgian Presidency is making one last
attempt to get the regulation combatting CSA material over the finish line.
Meanwhile the European Commission is offering a grant to build a repository
of public domain and open licensed works.
Dimi & Michele
=== CSAM ===
The Child Sexual Abuse Material Regulation
<https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?refere…>
is solidly stuck and unlikely to make it to the finish line, as we have
written before. Nonetheless the Belgian Presidency of the Council made yet
another attempt to get things moving. The latest compromise proposal
includes clearer safeguards to protect end-to-end encryption. It also tries
to introduce a risk-based model, whereas services deemed to be high-risk
would face more obligations.
—
The fundamental issues of the proposal remain though and it looks unlikely
that the European Parliament (which wants to protect end-to-end encryption)
and the Council (where some countries would really like to poke a hole in
end-to-end encryption) can find much common ground.
==== EMFA====
On 13 March 2024, the European Parliament voted on the final text of the
European Media Freedom Act
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20240308IPR19014/media-fr…>,
a new piece of legislation that aims at promoting media freedom and
pluralism within the EU. The Council has formally adopted the text
<https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/03/26/european…>on
the 26 of March, which now only needs to be formally signed and published
in the Official Journal - after twenty days it will enter into force.
=== Transparency & Targeting of Political Advertising===
On the 11th of March 2024, the Council of the EU adopted the agreed text of
the Regulation
<https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/03/11/eu-intro…>.
The new rules have been already published in the Official Journal
<https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202400900> and
thus will enter into force on the 9th of April. Some rules will apply
immediately - i.e. Article 3 containing definitions and Article 5
introducing restrictions on third-country sponsors, whilst others from
October 2025.
=== Anti-SLAPPs Directive ===
The Council of the EU
<https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/03/19/anti-sla…>
formally adopted the final text of the anti-SLAPPs directive. The text will
now be signed by the Presidents of both the European Parliament and the
Council and published in the Official Journal. Following twenty days from
its publication, it will enter into force.
=== AI Act ===
The European Parliament formally adopted
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2024-0138_EN.html> the
Artificial Intelligence Act.
=== French SREN Bill ===
On the 13th of March 2024, the Commission formally sent to the French
Government its detailed opinion
<https://europa.eu/webtools/rest/html2m/output/html2m-1711446140-zxjvi.pdf>
on the SREN bill, following its formal notification.
The EC highlighted how the new rules need to be in line with the e-Commerce
Directive, particularly the country of origin principle therein established
and its Article 3(4) and (5) for possible deviations from this principle,
and cannot be in contrast with or merely replicating DSA rules.
Furthermore, the EC pointed out that measures concerning the protection of
minors should be developed at EU level, as the DSA, among other things,
aims at addressing the issue.
French Authorities need now to take into account all these remarks before
approving the text if they want to avoid the opening of an infringement
procedure according to Article 258 TFEU. In this sense, the Commission
Mixte Paritaire <https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_mixte_paritaire>
(composed of senators and deputies) resumed its work on the 26th of March
and under the guidance of the new Secretary of State in charge of digital
affairs, Ms Marina Ferrari
<https://www.gouvernement.fr/personnalite/marina-ferrari?mission=secretaire-…>,
will try to address the EC’s concerns.
It is worth noting that, as the bill has not been passed yet, ARCOM has not
been formally designated as Digital Service Coordinator - the DSA foresaw
the formal designation by the 17th of February 2024.
===EU Repository of Public Domain and Open Licensed Works===
The European Commission is accepting proposals for a pilot project to build
a repository of public domain and open licensed works
<https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/funding/eu-repository-public-domai…>.
There are 700.000 euro allocated to this. One of the ideas for this is to
have a database of already identified free content, so online platforms can
avoid their systems blocking or deleting it (as is required by the
Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive).
===END===
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Wikimedia Europe ivzw
Dear all,
I am thrilled to share news of the launch of the *first issue*
<https://mailchi.mp/wikimedia/global-advocacy-newsletter-nov-2023> of the
new WMF Global Advocacy newsletter. You can sign up to receive future
newsletters at *this link*
<https://mailchi.mp/wikimedia/global-advocacy-policy-newsletter>.
This project is inspired by our desire to share the Wikimedia Foundation's
unique policy perspectives on pressing tech regulation issues with public
audiences, including policymakers, Wikimedians, and free knowledge
advocates. Our goal is to help these interested groups better understand
how we think about the internet and digital rights, and how laws and
regulations can and should be shaped to not only protect public interest
and community-led online spaces, like Wikimedia projects, but also to help
them flourish.
The newsletter will be emailed quarterly. Please feel free to share
the subscription
link <https://mailchi.mp/wikimedia/global-advocacy-policy-newsletter> with
your networks.
Happy reading!
Ziski
Franziska Putz (she/her)
Senior Movement Advocacy Manager
Global Advocacy, Wikimedia Foundation
Fputz(a)wikimedia.org
UTC Timezone
Dear Friends,
The great celebration of everything Wikimedia will take place in Katowice,
Poland, August 7-10. We are happy to tell you that Wikimedia Europe was
asked to curate the track on Legal and Advocacy, which we are happy to
support. We hope to see you there in big numbers and also that you care to
submit sessions to the track and that we can continue our many ongoing
conversations and planning during the event.
You can submit a session proposal for Wikimania 2024 here:
<https://lnkd.in/ewzsneFW>https://wikimania.eventyay.com/2024/cfp
<https://lnkd.in/ewzsneFW>
As Wikimania 2024 gathers under the topic of the *Collaboration of Open*,
we present under your consideration some ideas on how to align with this
message
<https://wikimedia.brussels/wikimania-2024-call-for-submissions-open/>.
Often we tend to focus on the audience that already is very much into the
new legislation or emerging policy trends. Isn’t Wikimania a great
opportunity to reach out to a wider audience and get them interested in the
impact of this work?
We are very much looking forward to coordinating with you further on the
sessions proposals and later in Katowice!
Warmly,
Anna on behalf of the Wikimedia Europe team
<https://wikimedia.brussels/about/> :)
--
Anna Mazgal
Executive Director
Wikimedia Europe
https://wikimedia.brussels
@a2na
mobile: +32 487 222 945
12 Rue Belliard
BE-1040 Brussels
--
Wikimedia Europe ivzw