tl;dr
The new Bulgarian Presidency of the Council is attempting some subtle moves on copyright [0], while the Parliament seems to be gaining speed (but not compromises) in its lead committee. “Fake news” were also talked about.


This and past reports: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor

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Copyright Reform - Bulgarian Presidency
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New questions on old questions: Towards the end of its Presidency Estonia asked Member States to position themselves politically on the controversial elements of the EU copyright reform: the so-called press publishers' right (Article 11) and the upload filtering (Article 13). The incoming Bulgarian Presidency now also requested political guidance on these issues from Member States. [1]

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On upload filtering: In its questions Article 13, the Presidency delved into the notion of 'communication to the public', a concept that tries to define which actions constitute a copyright infringement (linking, framing, hosting, promoting, etc.) and that is inconsistently ruled on by the Court of Justice of the EU. While we understand the need for clarification, introducing such a major legal definition halfway through the legislative process without an impact assessment and proper public consultation seems inconsistent with the “better regulation” principles. [2]

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On the “link tax”: On Article 11, the Bulgarian Presidency posed further questions only around 'Option A', which essentially mirrors the Commission's proposal to create a new ancillary copyright across Europe. The open question for the public is how much this indicates the Presidency’s preference. Wikimedia strongly prefers 'Option B' in the Council, a presumption of representation in court for publishers. This way we can avoid a new restrictive layer of law preventing us from sharing knowledge.

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Positions of Members States: Meanwhile, the Julia Reda office has published a chart with likely position of Member States in the Council. Check out your own country’s behaviour here: [3]  

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Wikimedia actions: If you are unhappy with how your country is behaving in Brussels and want to let them know, we have drafted answers to the Bulgarian Presidency questions. [4] While we are working on floating these in Brussels, we would be thrilled if you decided to localise and share these with your Ministry back home. Let us know and we’ll help!

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Copyright Reform - European Parliament

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Lead Committee: The Legal Affairs committee seems to be stepping up its action on this file and the end of March timeline for a committee vote suddenly doesn’t look completely impossible to keep. This being said, the groups seem to be far from reaching compromises on the seemingly even less divisive issues (i.e. everything but Articles 11&13). We will see how the compromises on upload filters and the the link tax progress through February to be able to assess the situation. Generally, a progressive half seems to be forming around the S&D, Greens, Gue and EFDD groups, while the EPP, ALDE and the ECR are keener on the Commission proposal.

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Chances for positive change: While not breaking the internet is definitely a priority, we have not given up working on positive change. The European Parliament is the only place such change can be introduced, as the Council is very unlikely to add new text. On Freedom of Panorama we are looking for new allies among self-driving cars developers and virtual reality applications producers (Do you know people working on this?). On education we are working to include more beneficiaries and delete licensing override in the current text (Do you know any educational institutions and organisations that could support these changes in a letter to MEPs?). On the “public domain safeguard” we basically need to convince the UK and Polish Conservatives to support it (Do you know someone?).

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Fake News HLEG

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The European Commission has assembled a High Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Fake News in order to work out proposals how to tackle this phenomenon. Wikimedia is one of 35 organisations or individuals who were summoned. [5] While the deliberations are confidential, the different sub-groups of the HLEG are basically looking into the problem definition and actions that can be taken by the lawmaker, platforms, publishers and users. Any ideas welcome, experts can be included. More information possible off-list.

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Is NC illegal? New study out!

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Thanks to one of two 3K € research grants given out by the FKAGEU last year [6] we now have a new study looking into “non-commercial” restriction of copyright exceptions. Eleonora Rosati [6], a.k.a. Elawnora and known for her IPKat posts, is the researcher behind this interesting read. Most excitingly, she believes it might actually be illegal for Member States to restrict exceptions with NC clauses, if this hasn’t been explicitly mentioned in the Directive. Full read here: [7]  

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Wikimédia France & the Constitutional Court

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As you probably know already, Wikimédia France and La Quadrature du Net are asking the French Constitutional Court on the legality of a new image right that, in our mind, infringes upon the public domain. [8] The hearing was recently and if you enjoy listening to legal deliberations in French, you may scratch your itch here: [9]. The verdict is expected on 2 February.

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[0]http://mepassistant.tumblr.com/post/170146417883/when-anyone-in-the-eurobubble-attempts-a-subtle

[1]http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-15651-2017-INIT/en/pdf

[2]https://ec.europa.eu/commission/priorities/democratic-change/better-regulation_en

[3]https://twitter.com/Senficon/status/957993085207760896

[4]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ilo_i95thomOVYwPsJyYe18Yinu6rptSwRX6iABMb0s/edit?usp=sharing

[5]https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/experts-appointed-high-level-group-fake-news-and-online-disinformation

[6]http://www.elawnora.com/

[7]https://www.jipitec.eu/issues/jipitec-8-4-2017/4639/?searchterm=

[8]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9dia_France/Domaines_nationaux

[9]http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/francais/videos/2018/janvier/affaire-n-2017-687-qpc.150620.html