tl;dr
The first monitoring report on EU Policy strives to give a brief overview over current legislative debates in Brussels that might be of interest to the Wikimedia movement. We have five topics:
1. Collective Rights Management and Online Use
2. EU-US Trade Agreement
3. Stakeholder Dialogue on Copyright
4. EU Data Protection
5. Network Neutrality
#CRM
Collective Rights Management and Online Use of Music Works
What’s going on?
The European Commission’s directive proposal on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online uses in the internal market [1] has entered the next stage of the legislative process by being submitted to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
The reform aims to tweak the current legislation by making collecting societies more transparent and ensuring cross-border compatibility of licenses on the internal market, especially when it comes to online use of works.
Why should we care?
The directive intends, although vaguely, to introduce non-commercial uses (read: Creative Commons licenses) as an option for creators in the collective management system.
As the Commission proposal is anything but clear on this, there is currently a push and pull within the Parliament as to how far this should go. Industry proponents argue for a “minimum harmonisation approach”, which means that no exact measures will be specified. At the same time, the Parliament’s Culture Committee says that authors should be given the right to remove some of their works from the collective management system and publish them under a free license. Currently collecting societies in the EU don’t allow their clients to make parts of their work generally available (e.g. One song of an album to be released under a CC license). In Germany, there is simultaneously a strong effort to build up a non-exclusive collecting society.[2]
Game plan?
The first reading in the Parliament is forecasted for the 19.11.2013. The four non-leading committees have already published their draft opinions. Until then the lead committee (Legal Affairs - Rapporteur Marielle Gallo, EPP) will publish its report and amendment proposals can still be tabled. There is also a mandatory consultation with the Economic and Social Committee.
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#IPRTTIP
Intellectual Property Regulation in EU-US Trade Agreement
What’s going on?
Both the EU and the US have expressed their intent to include an IPR chapter in TTIP, though its final scope will be subject of negotiations.
Why should we care?
Remember ACTA? We cannot be generally for or against this motion yet, since the content is not even discussed yet. We do however, as many other stakeholders, have an interest that the negotiations are public and transparent so that “surprise packages” (such as a more rigorous liability regime for providers) can be avoided.
Game plan?
Some MEPs are currently organising dialogues and meetings to hear about the fears and hopes of the stakeholders. Generally speaking, an involvement of the Parliament in the negotiations would make the process more predictable. Currently a group of digital rights organisations are trying to motivate DG Trade to release the texts, an effort not met warmly within the Commission (and the Parliament Committee on Trade for that matter). A vote on this treaty could happen well before the EP elections in 2014.
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#Licenses4Europe
Stakeholder Dialogue on Copyright Reform
What’s going on?
The European Commission has launched a stakeholder dialogue in four working groups with the intention to discuss current licensing issues and come up with a reform proposal.
Why should we care?
Game plan?
The working groups will conduct regular meeting until the end of this year. The Commission plans to table a legislative proposal early 2014.
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#EUdataP
EU Data Protection
What’s going on?
The European Commission originally wanted to guarantee a high level of data protection to all of its citizens online. This has turned into real trench warfare of several accounts. The topics discussed include:
Why should we care?
While we are currently complying with even the stricter proposals, as website operators, administrators and editors we need to be aware of what is legal and what is coming.
There was some fear that the “right to be forgotten” might force us to delete information from our websites, but it currently looks like this risk is off the table.
There are currently no inherent or apparent risks for us in this although we do care deeply about the topic.
Game plan?
The Lead Comittee’s (LIBE) vote is expected before the summer break 2013. After that the dossier will move to the 1st plenary hearing and a vote in the Council, where significant changes are highly unlikely.
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#netneutrality
Network Neutrality
What’s going on?
The European Commission originally expressed support for an “open” and “neutral” internet, yet has never acted to inscribe this into law. In the past months telecoms in Germany and internet service providers in France have stopped or limited access to services from competitors in their networks. This has lead to considerable outrage among digital rights groups. Neelie Kroes (Commissioner for Competition), who was originally in favour of the idea decided not to act upon the restrictions in France, saying that packaging or throttling access is a product labelling issue, rather than worrisome.[3]
Why should we care?
We are interested in a open and free internet guaranteeing each user the right to access all the websites. Otherwise clients might be charged extra money to access servers from outside their country (i.e. in Virginia) or have different packages for different types of websites (sports/news/multimedia) which would not be advantageous to us.
On the other hand, such a legislation would disallow zero access projects, which might hinder free access to educational and other content, even in cases with non-commercial intentions.
Game plan?
The Commission is currently planning to release non-binding recommendations. There is a considerable debate going on whether there should be binding legislation on the matter and whether the EU shouldn’t leave this issue to the member states. Slovenia and the Netherlands have already codified net neutrality as part of their national legislations.
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[2]http://c3s.cc/index_en.html
[3]http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/neelie-kroes/netneutrality/