Hi,

I attended a Munich conference on platforms and intermediaries in copyright law last week on Thursday and Friday <http://www.platforms.jura.uni-muenchen.de/index.html>, slides and other material will be published at <http://www.zr11.jura.uni-muenchen.de/aktuelles/index.html> The conference was organized by the Munich University in close connection with the Munich IP law center, the MPI and some GRUR people. Attendands came from many European member states, the US and Japan. Both the Commission and some national Governments for the Council were present.

The (in)official purpose of the conference was to get academics and practitioners from many fields together in preparation of the upcoming EU directive on the Digital Single Market. We talked about Art. 11 and 13.

If you are concerned about Art 11, the neighboring right for publishers, you all can sleep softer, Art. 11 is dead. Not a single person out of almost 200 attending the conference defended it in a straw poll, besides of course the representative of the commission and the NL ministery (on behalf of the council).

Art. 13 is the big elephant. I talked to a representative of the Commission and a high level lawyer with the NL ministry of security and justice (which has the lead on the subject matter for the council). Both assured me that they are aware of Wikipedia and want to keep us completely out of this regulation. They confirmed my concern that the draft wording of Art 13 is ambiguous and might cover Wikipedia as it is. So the movement needs to check in with all contacts and bring this matter to their attention until this is resolved! I presented both of them with the small Wikipedia pin.

And if someone from Germany or on the Union level has any contact to GRUR, it would be useful to brush that up, as they will be heavily involved in the further process. There will be a GRUR conference on the Digital Single Market directive in Brussels on June 12. I believe WikiMedia should be present with someone who can be convincing at a law conference. Show yourselves and make everyone aware that Art. 13 is of concern to us and the wording needs to be changed, and soon.

BTW: Everyone was really happy about seeing me, they appreciate Wikipedia to attend such events. That we become visible and participate in discussions on ongoing issues. Please keep that in mind for further events. And bring pins. Everyone loves them.

Henning Schlottmann, Munich
([[User:H-stt]], admin on deWP and Commons)

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