Hi,

WMEE had a crash meeting on FoP yesterday, where we put together an initial action plan. Some of our plans mirror what has already been discussed here (contact MEPs, get a press release out). Some are related to our ongoing FoP efforts: Current Estonian copyright law only provides for non-commercial FoP and we've been working on promoting less restricted regulations. So far, our efforts have met limited success, mainly due to the fact that FoP is an obscure subject even for those affected - architects, photographers and so on. So we've put a lot of work into communicating with creative industry groups. This is something we would advise others to do under this campaign as well: Our chances of success will be much better if we can show that Wikipedia is not the only one affected by the current situation or the Cavada proposal.

Our current plans, thus, include:

* Creating Meta pages and blog posts for getting the info out to our community

* Publicizing a press release. We'll also try and get an opinion piece published in national media, but this might prove difficult due to the present media situation (i.e. massive noise over refugee quotas).

* Contacting our MEPs.

* Getting commissioner Ansip involved. This could be a huge boon, as he's previously spoken out in support of non-restricted FoP.

* Involving other organizations in the process. This would inclue other information society and free culture stakeholders, as well as creative industry groups.

We will, of course, also contribute all we can to the international effort.

Tanel Pern, WMEE

2015-06-19 12:12 GMT+03:00 Stevie Benton <stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.uk>:

There's this on the Wikimedia UK blog - https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2015/06/uk-at-risk-of-losing-freedom-of-panorama/ 

We're also working on a few other things over the coming days and will share them when they are ready. We're looking to make a lot of noise over this. 

Thank you,

Stevie

On 18 June 2015 at 20:44, L.Gelauff <lgelauff@gmail.com> wrote:

OK, when there is, that could be a nice thing to link in social media. 

On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 8:56 PM, Romaine Wiki <romaine.wiki@gmail.com> wrote:

Not yet, but our intention is to create one and translate it in the various European languages,

Romaine

2015-06-18 20:54 GMT+02:00 L.Gelauff <lgelauff@gmail.com>:

Hi,

is there a page aimed for an external audience which explains in a few lines of text what is the problem, and why we care?

Lodewijk

On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 7:20 PM, Romaine Wiki <romaine.wiki@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all,

The message below I sent to the Wikimedia chapters.

As WMF considered SOPA as a big issue for Wikipedia/Wikimedia, this can have a huge impact on Wikipedia, Commons and other wikis and I think it would be good if WMF can take a stand in this matter and would help the European chapters with this issue.

Certainly some help with the E-mail / Tweet your Member of the European Parliament (like with SOPA) would help!

Greetings,

Romaine

Hi all,

This concerns all the chapters in the European Union and chapters in other European countries as well (copying is possible).

Subject
Copyrights reform in Europe going in the wrong direction, damaging Wikipedia.

What is going on?

In the European Parliament currently a proposal (amendment) is submitted that will restrict Freedom of Panorama in Europe.
This means: you are no longer allowed to upload images from modern buildings and works of public art on Commons and not allowed to use those images on Wikipedia.

Also if Freedom of Panorama is only allowed for Non Commercial purposes only, this is a problem for Wikipedia!

Some details?

It concerns the amendment AM421 proposed by Cavada and passed in the JURI committee.

When is the voting about the amendment?

Thursday 9th July

But we have one chance only!

What can we do about this?

• Forward this e-mail to anyone who should know about this.
  
• Talk to the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in your country. Especially the members of the EPP, S&D and ALDE groups. -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_European_Parliament,_2014%E2%80%9319
  
• Communicate this issue to the members of your association, to your Wikipedia communities, and to the readers of Wikipedia. The public needs to know!
  
• Translate: There will come a page on Meta about this, which needs translation. This page with info will contain basic information and can be linked to. This page can be copied to the local Wikipedias. This was done as well for the SOPA situation in 2012 which also attacked Wikipedia, example: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA
  
• Publicise a press release about this, write about it on your website/blog, talk to the media how this can damage Wikipedia, etc.
• Use social media: Twitter, Facebook, and so on...
  
• Twitter about it and retweet them. Suggestions: https://twitter.com/Wikimedia_BE/status/611000943908384768 - https://twitter.com/Wikimedia_BE/status/610984311853064193 - https://twitter.com/dimi_z/status/610792189631811584
• Twitter also directly to the Members of the European Parliament directly and ask them if they want to turn Wikipedia into black.

Also we should think about a CentralNotice / Sitenotice to inform our readers.

Where is the coordination?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_Panorama_2015

To have an overview it would be handy if you sign up for your country/area.

Collect here also your actions like press releases, tweets, Facebook posts, etc. Those can be useful to read and to see where some action is missing or needed.

You need more information?

Read the upcoming Signpost article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2015-06-17/Three_weeks_to_save_freedom_of_panorama_in_Europe

Also

The Dutch chapter (WMNL) has formed a project group (including me) who is working hard on getting more attention for this subject. Both towards MEPs, the local community and towards the readers of Wikipedia. A campaign is coming up today or in the following days.

In Brussels Dimitar and Karl are monitoring the situation in the European Parliament. Thanks to them this issue comes to our attention.

Does your MEP like to meet someone in Brussels? Dimitar and Karl are in Brussels and I can come there as well.

Other suggestions?

Let us know!

Thanks!

Romaine

----

board member of Wikimedia Belgium

volunteer for Wikimedia Nederland

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Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
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