Hello everyone,
Following Dimi’s great example of sending out an update about public policy developments in the EU each month, from now on we also want to give you an overview of policy issues that we have been thinking about lately. In this first issue, we will outline some items that we have been working on over the past couple weeks:
Public Policy Highlights
Freedom of expression should include the freedom to link.
The European Court of Human Rights is currently reviewing Magyar Jeti Zrt vs. Hungary, a case in which the Hungarian Supreme Court found a news website liable for posting a hyperlink that allegedly defamed a political party. At issue is whether it violates Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights—which protects Europeans’ rights to free expression—to hold someone legally responsible for the content of a hyperlink that they post. We believe that the Court was right to take the case, and that it should reverse the Hungarian courts’ rulings. Hyperlinks are prerequisite to a free and open internet, enabling collaboration and access to knowledge for all. They are similarly essential to the continued thriving of the Wikimedia projects.
Our own post about this case is up on the Wikimedia Blog here: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/11/22/freedom-expression-link/
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_on_Human_Rights
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_10_of_the_European_Convention_on_Human_Rights
http://www.husovec.eu/2016/08/ecthr-to-hear-case-about-liability-for.html
Delisting search results should not threaten access to knowledge.
Last month, we filed an intervention with the French Supreme Court about an order by the CNIL, the French privacy watchdog, to extend the effect of the so-called Right to be Forgotten or Right to Delist beyond French jurisdiction. The decision requires Google to remove information globally from its search results when requested appropriately by French citizens. Google has appealed this decision.
We support this appeal because the Right to Delist creates obstacles to finding knowledge online and threatens the public’s interest in remembering historic subjects that are important to society, such as human rights abuses or dissenting political opinions. Roughly half of Wikipedia visits originate from search engines. Delisting articles from search results, therefore, will make it more difficult for people to find and access Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Moreover, the very concept underlying delisting is contrary to the Wikimedia movement’s goal of promoting access to free knowledge.The CNIL’s implementation of the Right to Delist also lacks transparency and due process protections and threatens the Wikimedia community’s ability to effectively make editorial decisions over content.
The CNIL’s order would limit access to knowledge to people around the world, not just in France. Google should not be required under one country’s laws to remove lawful content from search results around the world. We fear that the CNIL’s decision sets a bad precedent for other nations looking to expand their jurisdiction beyond their geographical borders, ultimately limiting access to knowledge to the lowest common denominator.
Our own post about the issue is up on the Wikimedia Blog: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/10/19/petition-right-to-be-forgotten/
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_nationale_de_l%27informatique_et_des_libert%C3%A9s
Status of EU Copyright Package
Promoting copyright laws that support free knowledge and online collaboration is one of five pillars of policy for Wikimedia. The proposed directive on Copyright for the Digital Single Market is going to significantly shape this policy environment in the European Union. There are at least five issues that need to be amended to make sure the Wikimedia Projects can optimally grow and continue to flourish.
The Rapporteur for the European Parliament is currently hearing stakeholders. Wikimedians and supporters of Wikipedia are working on positive amendments that would introduce Freedom of Panorama and a new article on Safeguarding the Public Domain to the directive. These amendments aim to allow European citizens to upload images of buildings and art in public spaces and prevent new rights from being created in the process of digitization of works that are in the public domain.
Other issues that European allies are aiming to bring positive changes to include the proposed requirement to implement content recognition systems to prevent copyright infringement on platforms (Art. 13), which could hurt our community’s monitoring for infringing content, and a new right for publishers over the “digital use of their press publications” (Art. 11), which threatens the productive use of hyperlinks to refer to original sources of information. Finally, we see like-minded organizations working expand the limited exception for text and data mining (Art. 3) to benefit a broader range of users.
Further reading:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52016PC0593
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/09/13/european-commission-copyright-leaks/
Censorship and Freedom of Expression
As recent reports document, access to information and freedom of expression continue to be under pressure worldwide. We are especially worried when Wikipedia is the target of restrictions to access to content and censorship. The most recent Freedom on the Net report shows that these government restrictions exist in various forms, such as monitored and censored copycat versions of Wikipedia or complete blocks of the website (after implementation of HTTPS made it more difficult for governments to selectively block articles).
Apart from these government tactics of censorship, we also see other ways that freedom of expression is sometimes restricted by private parties. For instance, free speech can be chilled by copyright takedown notices or defamation lawsuits (see above).
Further Reading:
https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FOTN_2016_Full_Report.pdf
Events, etc.
Free Open Shared
On October 27, we held the first event of our new series of talks, panels, and conversations about policy, collaboration, and knowledge at our office in San Francisco. Mike Masnick from Techdirt joined us to give a talk about the intentions of copyright law and how today’s policy is misaligned with original goals.
To quote Mike: "We should judge copyright law by its contribution to learning and education."
See the talk on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsHp8hckkVc
Further reading:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/11/16/free-open-shared-mike-masnick/
Policy Portal Update: Discussion on Meta
Our Public Policy site is now a little more than one year old, so we are getting ready to update the text. The suggested edits have been added to Meta and we invite you to give us your input and feedback about these changes on the corresponding discussion page. We will post the new changes on the site on November 28.
We will continue to periodically update this text on a regular basis, so you are welcome to provide suggestions beyond this first refresher of the site.
See the suggested updates at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Public_policy/Update
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Public_policy
Outlook
If you have made it this far down, we want to thank you for reading. :) We aim to send out this newsletter at a monthly interval. If you have any feedback or would like us to include things that you see happening in your country or elsewhere, please follow up directly with Jan Gerlach at jgerlach@wikimedia.org.
If you have additional resources for the policy portal, such as your chapter's comments to policymakers, please also let us know! We may be able to add more information to each of the policy areas on the site.
Sincerely,
Stephen and Jan