Hello!
As we are bracing for the hearings of the designated Commissioners in the coming weeks, we are also keeping tabs on what seem to be the hot topics of the season: Copyright & AI on one hand, and child protection & age verification on the other.
Dimi & Michele
=== Considering Copyright & AI ===
We already teased this last month. It is a hot and versatile issue. How can data be used for AI training under the EU’s text and data mining exceptions? How can publishers who want to opt-out of this exception technically do it? Are AI models respecting the rules? When is the threshold for the protection of generated content crossed?
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As the hearings are approaching, we are getting more insight into the Commission's thinking. The new “digital supermo”, Finnish Commissioner-designate Henna Virkkunen has answered written questions https://hearings.elections.europa.eu/documents/virkkunen/virkkunen_writtenquestionsandanswers_en.pdf from lawmakers. Virkunnen says she won’t rule out reopening the EU’s copyright laws to tackle challenges posted by artificial intelligence. But she insists that “licensing and mediation mechanisms” should be tried to facilitate the relationship between creative industries and AI companies.
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Meanwhile the EU AI Office gathered general-purpose AI model providers for a dedicated workshop https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/first-workshop-general-purpose-ai-model-providers-code-practice-drafting-process where copyright has quickly become one of the two main topics, next to risk mitigation.
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Our analysis is that the EU is unlikely to steam towards a copyright or AI Act reform this legislative period. But there will be various initiatives targeted at pushing licencing deals. There have also been claims that some large language AI models don’t respect the technical opt-out mchanism https://academic.oup.com/jiplp/article/19/5/453/7614898?login=false provided for in the EU’s text and data mining exception. The EU will try to fix this, possibly through technical specifications.
=== Age-Verification & Child Protection ===
This is the second boiling pot of tech-related policy frenzy. Even Virkkunen stated, in the above linked written Q&A, that she wants to focus on “protection of minors online” as her number one priority when it comes to Digital Services Act enforcement.
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The European Parliament doesn’t have the power to initiate legislation, so while the Commission makes up its mind, all it can do is own-initiative reports and hearings. To little surprise, the powerful Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee (IMCO) has decided to write a report on “the protection of minors online”.
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Member States are not sitting idly by. After Spain, Germany, France, Sweden and Denmark have raised the topics in various ways (see past editions of this newsletter), now it’s the turn of the Netherlands and Italy.
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The lower chamber of the Dutch parliament passed a motion that requests its government to “legally secure privacy-friendly and reliable age verification for online gambling and websites with pornographic content".
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The Italian Authority for Communications (AGCOM) announced https://igamingexpress.com/italys-agcom-enforces-mandatory-age-verification-for-adult-content/ that it wants to introduce age-verification systems for various platforms.
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Our comment is that there are valid reasons and cases where governments need to address child protection, including through age-verification. The sale of alcohol and online financial credits being two very obvious examples. Still, age-verification is not always the only and best way to protect children across all online spaces. It comes with drawbacks such as more personal data being gathered and limiting access. The Digital Services Act seems to recognise that balance. It seems to suggest that different approaches are needed for different types of services. Something we can agree with.
=== Commissioner Hearings ===
The hearings of all the Commissioners are scheduled for 4-12 November. You may see details and watch online, there’s a dedicated page https://elections.europa.eu/european-commission/en/programme/ now.
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For us the most important hearing will be that of Finnish Henna Virkkunen. We will also listen to Irish Michael McGrath (who will oversee fundamental rights) and Maltese Glenn Micaleff (culture).
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If everything goes as planned, the new Commission will start its regular work on 1 December.
=== Geo-Blocking Consultation ===
A quick heads-up: the European Commission plans to open a call for evidence and public consultation to support its evaluation of the 2018 Geo-blocking Regulation. The public consultation https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14416-Evaluation-of-the-Geo-blocking-Regulation_en is currently listed as planned for the 2nd quarter of 2025.
==== From the Blog ====
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Wikimedia Europe Partners for Research into Wikipedia’s Practices on Information on Elections https://wikimedia.brussels/wikimedia-europe-partners-for-research-into-wikipedias-practices-on-information-on-elections/ -
Prepped to the nines: Wikimedians gathered in Brussels to prepare for public policy advocacy challenges https://wikimedia.brussels/prepped-to-the-nines-wikimedians-gathered-in-brussels-to-prepare-for-public-policy-advocacy-challenges/
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