Hi,
I attended a Munich conference on platforms and intermediaries in copyright law last week
on Thursday and Friday <http://www.platforms.jura.uni-muenchen.de/index.html>,
slides and other material will be published at
<http://www.zr11.jura.uni-muenchen.de/aktuelles/index.html> The conference was
organized by the Munich University in close connection with the Munich IP law center, the
MPI and some GRUR people. Attendands came from many European member states, the US and
Japan. Both the Commission and some national Governments for the Council were present.
The (in)official purpose of the conference was to get academics and practitioners from
many fields together in preparation of the upcoming EU directive on the Digital Single
Market. We talked about Art. 11 and 13.
If you are concerned about Art 11, the neighboring right for publishers, you all can sleep
softer, Art. 11 is dead. Not a single person out of almost 200 attending the conference
defended it in a straw poll, besides of course the representative of the commission and
the NL ministery (on behalf of the council).
Art. 13 is the big elephant. I talked to a representative of the Commission and a high
level lawyer with the NL ministry of security and justice (which has the lead on the
subject matter for the council). Both assured me that they are aware of Wikipedia and want
to keep us completely out of this regulation. They confirmed my concern that the draft
wording of Art 13 is ambiguous and might cover Wikipedia as it is. So the movement needs
to check in with all contacts and bring this matter to their attention until this is
resolved! I presented both of them with the small Wikipedia pin.
And if someone from Germany or on the Union level has any contact to GRUR, it would be
useful to brush that up, as they will be heavily involved in the further process. There
will be a GRUR conference on the Digital Single Market directive in Brussels on June 12. I
believe WikiMedia should be present with someone who can be convincing at a law
conference. Show yourselves and make everyone aware that Art. 13 is of concern to us and
the wording needs to be changed, and soon.
BTW: Everyone was really happy about seeing me, they appreciate Wikipedia to attend such
events. That we become visible and participate in discussions on ongoing issues. Please
keep that in mind for further events. And bring pins. Everyone loves them.
Henning Schlottmann, Munich
([[User:H-stt]], admin on deWP and Commons)