Two documents from the EU Commission that were leaked by Politico have already been mentioned on this list:
- Single Market: The Evidence *1 - A Digital Single Market for Europe *2
I have looked closer at the these working papers, which give us a preliminary idea about what the Commission wants with its initiative for a Digital Single Market(DSM). There are plenty of bright spots, and also a few reasons to be wary.
The final, official version of the strategy will be presented in not too long, so I'll keep this preview brief.
As the Commission has already indicated on several occasions, they are primarily looking to DSM reform as a way of boosting the struggling European economies. Therefore, reforms with an excepted economic impact will be on top of their list. We expect them to talk mostly about ending geoblocking and cutting prices for cross-border deliveries of physical goods. However, also a few changes that benefit free knowledge are realistic to expect.
Copyright
We will likely see copyright reform that clarifies the legal environment for data mining, whether commercial or non-commercial.
Most importantly, the Commission states that they view the national differences in copyright exceptions as a problem, and may propose that some of the exceptions are harmonized. This is a more cautious approach than the one that Julia Reda has proposed in the European Parliament about harmonizing all copyright exceptions, but nevertheless a step in the same direction.
The Commission wants to focus on harmonizing exceptions where problems as a result of fragmentation have been identified. This reinforces the importance of reminding them of the very real problems that different European Freedom-of-Panorama regulations are causing.
Intermediary liability
The Commission wants to balance measures that the content industries will dislike (such as banning geoblocking) with measures that strengthen copyright enforcement. While they seem reluctant to revisit the notice-and-action principle in the e-Commerce Directive (which says that an intermediary is not responsible for users' copyright infringements as long as they remove unauthorized material when given a notice), they suggest harmonized procedures for swift removal.
There are also formulations about limiting which services should be subject to the exception from liability.
Standardization and Interoperability
The ironing out of European ICT standards will continue and increase in pace. The advisory group "European Multi Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation" will play a key role. Perhaps it could make sense to look into how the Wikimedia movement can be more involved in this process to ensure the use of truly open standards?
*1 http://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2... *2 http://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2...