tl;dr
The EU copyright reform has entered into the first decisive phase in the European Parliament. The lead committee (Legal Affairs) is collecting amendment proposals until 12 April. After that, the rapporteur and her shadows will try to make sense of all the proposals and find compromises that can be carried by majorities. This is the first chance for us to include the changes we need in this reform. Our priorities are FoP, Public Domain, TDM and UGC.
This and past reports: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor
===
Copyright reform - Positive change we are working on
---
Freedom of Panorama: The Commission had “forgotten” to include FoP in its proposal back in September [1], despite stating that it was a relevant issue and calling upon Member States to implement it. [2] In the meanwhile the French EPP MEP Marc Joulaud has proposed a baseline Freedom of Panorama in his draft opinion for the Culture committee. [3] The proposal would require all EU countries to introduce this exception while leaving all details up to them. The floor for amendments to the culture committee’s opinion has been closed now. From a political view it will be critical to keep FoP in this committee’s text, which is what we will be working on.
Meanwhile, the deadline for filing amendments to the opinion of the Internal Market committee [4] has also passed. Wikimedia has worked with MEPs from the S&D, ALDE and Greens groups to table Freedom of Panorama amendments. We must now focus on getting a committee majority for it.
In parallel, the lead committee (Legal Affairs) [5] is accepting amendments until 12 April. We are working with MEPs from most groups to try and convince them to table Freedom of Panorama proposals. Volunteers with connections to MEPs from their countries are more than welcome to join the process. If you haven’t already been contacted by me, please get in touch! ;)
---
Public Domain: Several ongoing disputes over the use of public domain images make this a top priority for us. [6][7] If we are successful at introducing a “public domain safeguard” to the EU copyright framework this would provide legal clarity for the digitisation of cultural heritage works. It would also be the first time the public domain is defined in EU law. We have introduced amendment proposals for such a safeguard in the Internal Market committee and are working on doing the same thing in the Legal Affairs committee.
What would help now is if we find more cultural heritage organisations (GLAMs) who are willing to support this. So, if you are in touch with a museum or archive that could agree to getting in touch with a MEP, please drop me a line!
---
User-Generated Content: This is something that wasn’t on anyone’s radar, simply because we didn’t expect there would be policy makers courageous enough to propose it. A user-generated content exception would allow the re-use of parts of copyrighted works in the creation of a new work. Examples of such uses would be the film poster in a Wikipedia article. In this sense, it is not unlike fair use in the US. UCG has been proposed in the Culture committee by French rapporteur Marc Joulaud (EPP) and in the Internal Market committee by Scottish rapporteur Catherine Stihlers (S&D). Unfortunately, Miss Stihler’s version is limited to non-commercial uses only. Wikimedia is now working on keeping Mr. Joulaud’s text while fixing Mr. Stihler’s. We are also seeking the best path to opening up this discussion in the Legal Affairs committee.
---
Text and Data Mining: From all exceptions we are working on, this one seems to be the one getting the most support. MEPs from across countries, political groups and committees broadly agree that the technical analysis of text and data shouldn’t require an additional license or permission, once legal access to these has been obtained. However, there are still a handful of members (mainly German EPP) who continue their vocal opposition to a full exception and want to limit it to non-commercial uses, or to uses by research organisations (the Commission’s original proposal). Wikimedia supports rapporteurs Comodini (MT, EPP, JURI), Krasnodebski (PL, ECR, ITRE) and Stihler (UK, S&D, IMCO) who are calling for a full exception.
===
Copyright reform - Negative change we are trying to prevent
---
Upload Filtering: There is a proposal to make all online platforms that host user-generated install “content recognition technologies” and sign agreements with rightsholders is worrisome. It could mean automatic content take-downs on our projects. Additionally, the systems in question do not recognise exceptions and limitations or other free speech provisions. They are also alarmingly similar to censorship infrastructures used by countries with non-free internet access.
The rapporteur in the Legal Affairs committee, Therese Comodini, already significantly weakened this article [8] to make sure the E-Commerce Directive, which guarantees liability protections for online platforms like Wikipedia, is not touched upon. The rapporteur of the opinion in the Internal Market committee, Catherine Stihler, also re-wrote the proposal to make sure free & open project do not fall into the scope. We must now support these two MEPs to make sure they withstand internal opposition from within their groups. On this article we are working in close coordination with like-minded organisations such as EDRi and Copyright4Creativity [9].
---
Ancillary Copyright: The idea of granting a new related right to press publications is not new. It already failed in Belgium, in Germany and in Spain. [10] The problem for us is, that the version of this right proposed for by the European Commission could make the use annotated bibliographies or even links that contain the name of the article become illegal unless a license is granted. This is not only nonsensical but also outright dangerous.
It seems like the charge to removing this proposal is getting a solid amount of traction. In the European Parliament, the rapporteurs in the two most important committees for copyright (Legal Affairs and Internal Market) propose to delete this article (Stihler) or to simply turn it into a “legal standing guarantee” for publishers. Even in the Council the chances are stacked against this new right. Apart from Germany and Estonia, the governments of EU Member States don’t seem enthusiastic about this.
===
Copyright Reform - Next steps
---
As if there weren’t enough opinions and voices on copyright, a fifth opinion giving committee has been added to mix. The Civil Liberties committee [11] should finalise its report by 8 June. More importantly, the Legal Affairs committee is accepting amendment proposals until 12 April. After this date, the rapporteur and her shadows will start meeting on a regular basis at so-called “shadow meetings” to try to make sense of the expected several thousand amendments and will attempt to forge compromises. If a compromise can be found, it will be voted on by the committee as compromise amendment. CAs usually pass with safe majorities. If there is no compromise, then the individual amendments are voted on one by one.
Simultaneously, the Member States are trying to establish their own positions and priorities on this dossier. About half of them still haven’t reached a national position on these matters, which makes it still possible for us to influence them.
===
Digital Contracts
---
Sometimes in politics being opportunistic is a merit. Shortly after the EU copyright reform was announced, the European Commission also proposed a new Directive on digital contracts. [12] BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation [13] is now trying to include a safeguard for copyright exceptions and limitation. It would mean that European law prohibits the contractual override of copyright exceptions and limitations. We believe this is a worthwhile endeavour and support them by asking MEPs who we have good working relationships with to support the proposal.
===
Big Fat Brussels Meeting
---
As mentioned above, influencing the position of European governments on copyright reform is still possible and necessary. Therefore, this year’s Big Fat Brussels Meeting [14] that will take place in Brussels on the 22 and 23 April will focus on developing an integrated “Council Strategy” for Wikimedia’s communities. There is no formal registration (please add your name to the Meta-Wiki page) and everyone willing to work on making the above mentioned goals reality is welcome!
===
===
[2]http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52016DC0592
[5]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/juri/members.html
[6]https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/11/23/lawsuit-public-domain-art/
[7]https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_Naarden_1647_Jacob_van_Ruisdael.jpg
[9]http://copyright4creativity.eu/
[10]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiBxdH4MM_0
[11]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/libe/members.html
[12]http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-6264_en.htm
[14]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Big_Fat_Brussels_Meeting_4
