[Publicpolicy] EU policy monitoring report - May 2018

tl;dr The Council adopted a negotiating mandate on copyright. The European Parliament is discussed a seventh compromise proposal on “upload filters” today and is expected to vote on 20 June. After that, the two institutions will have to agree on a common version. This and past reports: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor === Copyright Reform --- The Council: The Bulgarian Presidency got its negotiating mandate [1] from the Council last Friday.It lays out the position that the Council representatives will be defending while trying to agree with the Parliament on a common final text. The mandate does not mention content recognition technologies (i.e. “upload filters”) particularly, but requires platforms to “prevent availability” of content, which amounts to ex-ante filtering of all user contributions. It also supports a new ancillary copyright on press publications. Wikipedia and our other projects are excluded from the scope of the new liability regime and thus the filters, but other online platforms, including code sharing services like GitHub, aren’t. --- The Parliament: This week the lead committee [2] held two negotiating rounds - on the ancillary copyright (Art. 11) and on upload filters (Art. 13). The rapporteur seems keen on using the Council decision to speed up the process and is likely to push a 20 June vote, with or without compromises. We feel that a majority against Art. 11 might be possible, while Art. 13 is moving toward a wording that might defuse its most dangerous elements, but would still do plenty of harm. The filtering majority looks razor-thin and relies on the Front National. Not to forget that we still have “safeguarding the public domain” (with Europeana, IFLA, Communia) and “Freedom of Panorama” (with EGDF [3] and the German car industry[4]) provisions to fight for. At this point everything is a toss-up and could go either way. --- The trilogue: An interesting nuance is that the Council voted on a “negotiating mandate” and not a “general approach” to start the trilogue (i.e. the talks between the Council and Parliament chaperoned by the Commission). The former is politically less binding and leaves more open questions, for instance which criteria should be used as a threshold for the new ancillary copyright (originality or length). Germany, Belgium, the Netherland, Slovenia, Finland and Hungary voted against the mandate given. As for the EP, it is an open question whether the rapporteur will try to enter the trilogue straight after the committee vote or will go to plenary first (resulting in a more binding Parliament position). --- Preparing for the trilogue: The process is unlikely to start before September meaning that it will be lead by the Austrian Presidency on the Council side. We are preparing several events with Wikimedia Österreich to flank this in Vienna, firstly a press event with Katherine Maher just before Austria takes over. [5] === Tackling illegal content online:Before the dust had a chance to set on the feedback on the Inception Impact Assessment[6] the European Commission had harvested, it is already surveying citizens on how to best regulate illegal content, which means anything from counterfeit shoes through hate speech to terrorism. A Techdirt article explains best what is at stake if these bad ideas that are evident in the biased study come to life, so go straight there[7] and then visit our meta page [8] to find all the relevant links and leave comments. It is important that we speak out before June 25th deadline; the Wikimedia Foundation, WMBXL and WMCZ are working on it. If you want to also respond, write to us! === ePrivacy Regulation: This important file (cookies and privacy of messengers) is on our radar, but even trying very hard we cannot report much. It has been an impressive 506 days that the Council hasn't managed get their act together and adopt a position. Looks like the Austrian Presidency may well inherit this dossier. === Trade Negotiations: The texts of the trade treaties between the EU and Japan [9] and the EU and Singapore [10] have been finalised. In parallel, the EU is preparing to finish the Mexico and MERCOSUR negotiations and to start the process with Australia and New Zealand. All of these have or will have important implications for the dissemination of free knowledge. The EU-Japan and Singapore treaties, for instance, fix copyright to at least lifelong plus 70, thereby internationally binding these sides to terms that go beyond the Berne Convention. As the EFF have recently announced they will allocate less resources to trade, the digital civil society seems uncoordinated and aimless in this sector. === Alliance on Disinformation: As part of the European Commission’s ongoing efforts to tackle disinformation (a.k.a. “fake news”) [11], an Alliance on Disinformation has been inaugurated this week with the goal to produce a Code of Practice for platforms and advertisers. Imagine a room full of reps of known domains (including us) and the large European advertising associations sprinkled with the odd bureaucrat in between. Expect commitments around defunding disinformation sources, boosting fact checkers and dealing with fake accounts/bots/sock puppets. Public results by year’s end, as the Commission wants to see measures implemented before the European Parliament elections next year and is threatening regulation if nothing happens. === a crime, punishable with up to one year in prison, to create or distribute informational materials with the intent of supporting the asylum request of someone who "arrived from or through a country where they are not persecuted for their race, nationality, social group, religion or political views, or their fears of direct persecution are ungrounded”. Bill in Hungarian: [12] === [1]https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/35373/st09134-en18.pdf [2] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2016/… [3] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B8Eeuo2TymJu_BLJwrVu8D0hHgdnYFdH/view?usp=… [4] https://drive.google.com/file/d/18x3BpqqH3_MJs2NIOFfXOycVIxLahfkM/view?usp=… [5] https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20180529_OTS0108/pk-mit-k-maher-wik… [6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Illegal_Content_Feedback_2018 [7] https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180503/23575539775/eu-commission-asks-p… [8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Illegal_Content_Consultation_2018 [9] http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1684&serie=1296&… [10]http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=961 [11] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/communication-tackling-o… [12]http://www.parlament.hu/irom41/00333/00333.pdf