Good morning, everybody!
The Freedom of Panorama compromise amendment that we were working on for the past months and that looked like a very likely scenario is off now. This isn't good news. At the end, even the UK Conservatives tried to save it. This is somewhat positive. However, not enough shadows signed off on it.
This means that now we're back to the original text of the report, which reads:
#16 Calls on the EU legislator to ensure that the use of photographs, video footage or other images of works which are permanently located in public places is permitted;
The risk is that amendments filed by a number of MEPs from the largest groups will be voted on. These include "non-commercial":
AM 415/422/423 (identical) #16 *Invites* the EU legislator to *recognise* that the use of photographs, video footage or other images of works which are permanently located in *physical* public places is permitted *and should be considered to be in the public domain, where that use is for a non-commercial purpose or scale;*
The legal affairs committee (JURI) has 24 voting members, which means we need 12 people against to be sure they won't pass and the original text stands. Counting abstentions probably even fewer than 12 no votes will be enough, but let's aim for the full dozen.
The vote is next Tuesday. The fact that the AM is legally incoherent should help us bring up some additional good arguments against. I will be contacting the Europeans among you with more specific briefs on who to call and what to say.
Cheers, Dimi