tl;dr
Ahead of the next important copyright vote on 12 September everyone is
waiting to see what new compromises and amendments will be on the slate.
This and past reports:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor
COPYRIGHT VOTE ON 12 SEPTEMBER
Procedure: It is only the second time rule 63(c)3 has been invoked [1], so
no one seems absolutely certain how things will go down. What we know is
that the baseline text will be the initial legislative proposal by the
Commission. [2] Then there will be a block vote to update it to the JURI
version [3], except for contested articles. On contested articles there
will be split votes, meaning that they will be voted on individually with
several competing amendments to choose from. We are expecting split votes
on articles 11, 13 if there is no compromise, as well as on some exceptions.
Compromises: The rapporteur Mr. Voss was meeting with the shadow
rapporteurs this week. On Article 13 (filtering and remuneration on UGC
platforms) a compromise doesn’t seem impossible, but all of digital
Brussels is still waiting to see a suggestion by the rapporteur, which is
expected late on Friday. On Article 11 (ancillary copyright for press
publishers) a compromise is not too likely. At the same the two political
groups that were almost perfectly split during the last vote, ALDE and S&D,
are trying to hammer out internal compromises to appear more united. If
there is no acceptable proposal by Mr. Voss on Article 13, an potential
alternative compromise supported by most of S&D and/or ALDE would be the
odds-on favourite.
Other Amendments: Freedom of Panorama and a User Generated Content
Exception will be again voted on. This is the last chance to include these
in the reform. Amendments to improve to the text and data mining exception
are also expected.
Postponement: There are consistent rumours that the Commission is
suggesting to postpone the vote by another month to beginning of October.
We won’t know for sure until the middle of next week, but we believe it is
way more likely the vote will happen as planned on 12 September, so we are
preparing for it.
EVENTS & ACTIONS WE ARE WORKING ON
Parliamentary Breakfast with Jimmy Wales: On Thursday, 6 September, Jimmy
Wales will speak at a parliamentary breakfast inside the European
Parliament. The target audience for such events are MEPs and staff. The
breakfast will be hosted by four MEPs from different political groups and
Member States to avoid political colouring. The topic will be the EU
copyright reform and its potential effect on free knowledge projects like
Wikipedia.
Event & edit-a-thon in Strasbourg: We have booked a room inside the
European Parliament’s Strasbourg building on 11 September in the afternoon.
This is less than twelve hours ahead of the scheduled vote. Our main idea
is to use it as a last opportunity to demonstrate to undecided MEPs the
concrete consequences the different amendments would have on our projects.
Like this we hope they will be voting on concrete examples instead of on
abstract ideas. Example: “Should this image be included in this Wikipedia
article?” During the day we would like to organise an EP-related
edit-a-thon where MEPs and staff can participate and learn about the
editing process. For both we need volunteers on location and we can help
with travel. If you are interested in coming to Strasbourg, please get in
touch with us at eupolicy(a)wikimedia.be
Postcards to MEPs: Wikimedia Italia will send handwritten postcards to
Italian MEPs with blacked out monuments from their region. This will be
coupled with a call to support Freedom of Panorama. If you would like to do
something similar and need any kind of support, please get in touch. Same
address: eupolicy(a)wikimedia.be
WMF landing page and contact tool: Among other things, the WMF is working
on a landing page to provide information about the reform and our vision,
as well as on a contact tool. They are also investing a lot of effort in
getting the communications side of things, including social and traditional
media, right. More information about this was shared on-list earlier this
week: [4]
Media outreach: Several EU chapters are preparing to send out press
releases or trying to get opinions places in newspapers in their country.
If you would like to try working with media but need help, please get in
touch.
MISCELLANEOUS
PSI Directive: There is life beyond copyright and it looks like the Public
Sector Information Directive, a piece of legislation that aims at opening
up public data and documents for re-use. [5] The rapporteur in the opinion
giving Internal Market committee, Julia Reda, has published her opinion [6]
as well as all amendment proposals by fellow committee members. [7] Next,
the rapporteur in the lead Industry, Research and Trade committee, Neoklis
Sylikiotis, is expected to do the same. We are, together with the OKFN and
Communia, providing expertise and amendment ideas. Deadline for amendments
is 11 October, the committee vote is scheduled for early December.
.eu domain names: The piece of legislation regarding the dotEU domain names
will be updated. Interesting aspects to look out for include the rules on
revoking domains and new rules about accessing whois data. [8]
Disinformation: There is a “Multistakeholder Forum on Disinformation” in
Brussels that is currently working on drafting a Code of Practices for
social media and advertisers with the goal to curtail disinformation,
especially with regard to the next European Parliament elections.[9] It is
expected to deliver an agreement with concrete measures on 26 September.
The Commission may or may not follow up with a proper legislative proposal.
Officially that depends on whether they are satisfied by the final version
of the code.
===
[1]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getLastRules.do?language=en&referen…
[2]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/docs_autres_institutions/commission_e…
[3]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL…
[4]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/publicpolicy/2018-August/001836.html
[5]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2018/…
[6]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fNONSGML…
[7]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&reference=PE…
[8]
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/regulation-implementatio…
[9]
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/meeting-multistakeholder…