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@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@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.
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[1]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getLastRules.do?language=en&reference=RULE-069-3
[4]https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/publicpolicy/2018-August/001836.html
[5]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2018/0111(COD)&l=fr
[9]https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/meeting-multistakeholder-forum-disinformation