Wikimedia and the EU
June Report
tl;dr
A draft of the White Paper on copyright was leaked and looks very vague. A court decision confirmed that caching when browsing the internet does not constitute a copyright infringement.
This and past reports: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor
ToC
1. Leaked White Paper on Copyright
2. Meltwater Case CJEU Decision
3. EU Libraries May Digitise Books Without Asking Permission
4. Next Steps in Brussels - Parliamentary Groups, Committees and Commissioners
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#copyright #DGmarkt #whitepaper
1. Leaked White Paper on copyright remains vague
Why is this relevant?
A White Paper is an action proposal by the European Commission. [1] They are the usual phase before a legislative proposal, although this is not an automatic step.
What happened?
Following the copyright consultation by the European Commission and several studies released in the intellectual property field, a white paper was announced for June and then July. While we’re still waiting for the officially published version, a draft was leaked to the public.[2][3]
The draft looks quite elaborate, so that I wouldn’t expect major changes of direction in the final version, but some nuanced might still be refined.
The basic position is that they recommend action to be taken in the 2014-2019 period, but don't want to say whether this should legislative or other. The positions range from harmonising exceptions (teaching, persons with disability) to basically refraining from any binding steps (in the cases of user-generated content, e-lending).
It clearly underlines, that the Commission sees copyright first and foremostly as an economic tool, which means that we need to be able to bring our points across using economic arguments.
In its current form, the white paper doesn’t really talk about the major copyright issues (fragmented rules across 28 Member States and the uneconomic length of copyright terms), but leaves the door open for some harmonisation of exceptions and limitations. Whether the opening will be large enough to push our issues firmly onto the agenda will partly depend on tonality and nuancing of the final version.
What comes next?
We need to wait for the official text and see how it will be perceived by the Council and Parliament. The white paper needs to be also read in combination of the impact assesment, which is to be released in parallel by the Commission. A leaked version of this also available. [4]
The actions that follow will depend heavily on the new Commissioner, who is expected to take office in November. A great opportunity to make copyright a crucial agenda topic over the coming five years is the new Commissioner’s hearing in the European Parliament in September/October. One way to make sure this happens is to get in touch with the relevant committees and MEPs that will conduct the hearing.
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#meltwater #CJEU
2. CJEU confirms that browsing is no copyright infringement
Why is this relevant?
It is part of both, the fundamental structure of the internet and copyright law. The question was whether technical copies (caching) made while accessing websites are copyright infringements and thus need permission by the rights owner.
What happened?
The UK Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) sued a service called Meltwater News based on the conviction that temporary, on-screen cached copies of newspaper articles on end-users’ computers made while accessing websites constitute copyright infringement.
The UK Supreme Court referred [5] the case to the CJEU to clarify whether temporary copies may be made without authorisation of the copyright holder, according to the 2001 InfoSoc Directive, Article 5. [6]
The Court of Justice ruled [7] that in this case copies are temporary, part of the technical process and incidental, so that no permission needs to be cleared for them.
What comes next?
Temporary and technical copies are an important part of the debate around copyright and the internet and such decisions will be taken into account for the white paper on copyright as well as any further steps proposed by the European Commission.
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#digitisation #libraries
3. Advocate-General says libraries may digitise books without permission
Why is this relevant?
In a forthcoming ruling the Court of Justice of the European Union needs to decide in which cases libraries will be allowed to digitise books in their collection and how they’ll be allowed to grant access to them. This is an important decision that directly influence how knowledge can be legally digitised and distributed.
What happened?
A German publisher sued the Technical University of Darmstadt, because it digitised one of its books - which was part of the university’s library collection - without asking for an additional permission first. While the system didn’t allow the number of people accessing the digital version to exceed the number of copies the library owned, the on-premise terminals gave students the opportunity to print copies or save them on USB sticks. [8]
The case was referred to the CJEU by the German court asking for guidance. The Advocate-General of the CJEU released an opinion on this case [9] stating that it is up to Member States to allow libraries to digitise books in their collections without the rights-holders’ consent. Further it says that copying the digitised version is a copyright infringement as far as the InfoSoc Directive is concerned, but printing the book should be permissible, since this may be considered a private copy.
What comes next?
The final ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU doesn’t always follow the Advocate-General’s opinion, so we will need to wait for a few more months to have legal certainty of what is permissible.
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#EP #committees #NewParliament
4. Next steps in Brussels: Parliamentary groups, committees and Commissioners
Why is this relevant?
It helps knowing who we will be working with over the next 5 years and which political ecosystem this partnership will be set in. Talking specifically about copyright, the crucial European Parliament Committees are JURI (Legal Affairs) and IMCO (Internal Market and Consumer Protection), while the most relevant Commissioner will be the one responsible for the Internal Market (DG MARKT).
What happened?
With the first plenary session scheduled for the 1-3 July in Strasbourg, the parliamentary groups seem to have formed. The new composition of the major looks as follows [10]:
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European Peoples Party 211 (conservative/industry-driven copyright views) -
Socialists&Democrats 191 (conflicting views on copyright, but very pro-education) -
European Conservatives&Reformists 70 (conflicting views, but British Tories pro single market) -
Liberals&Democrats 67 (pro-market but also supporting strong civil and user rights) -
Radical Left 52 (supporting a major copyright overhaul) -
Greens/EFA 50 (group comprises the Pirate MEP and has supported a vast copyright reform)
What has changed is the strengthened position of radical-right groups and independents. This has shifted the majority coalitions needed. In the last legislative period it used to be possible to get a majority with the Socialists, Greens and the Radical Left or with Peoples Party and Liberals. Now both combinations won’t reach the required number of votes meaning that finding majorities will become even harder and necessary compromises might water down most legislative texts.
What comes next?
The groups will be appointing MEPs to the committees ahead of the first plenary now. A lot of names are already known as these nomination were part of the forming of the groups, but the final lists are expected to be released on 3 July (the first plenary in Strasbourg will take place 1-3 of July) or on the 7th when the first committee meetings will be held.
The committees will then also be in charge of handling the hearings of the proposed new commissioners in September and October. The new Commission is expected to step into office in November.
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[1]http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/glossary/white_paper_en.htm
[2] http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2014/06/super-kat-exclusive-heres-commissions.h...
[3] https://www.dropbox.com/s/0xcflgrav01tqlb/White%20Paper%20%28internal%20draf...
[4] http://statewatch.org/news/2014/may/eu-draft-impact-assessment-copyright-acq...
[5] http://www.twobirds.com/en/news/articles/2014/global/cjeu-decision-in-meltwa...
[6]http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32001L0029
[7] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:62013CJ0360&am...
[8] http://eulawradar.com/case-c-11713-technische-universitat-darmstadt-introduc...
[9] http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2014-06/cp140078en.p...
[10] http://europedecides.eu/2014/06/whos-going-where-tracking-the-musical-chairs...