Hi all,
As you might have been aware, there was a School of Rock(ing) EU Copyright https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Training_sessions/Proposals/School_of_Rock(ing)_EU_Copyright workshop in Esino Lario. Here's a quick brief on what was worked on.
There were 13 participants and we picked 4 countries where Wikimedians are currently working on concrete legislative change and need help. For the first hour I gave some overview of the EU legislative and lobbying cycles, what to expect in the next 12 months from Brussels and on how media communications work. Then we spent another 3 hours on the country cases.
*Romania* User:Strainu from the Romanian Wikimedia Community was asked by ApTI (EDRi member) to give a presentation on Freedom of Panorama. They are co-hosting a workshop with the National Librarian Association that government officials will attend. We worked on his presentation, sharing statistics and ideas for images to include. We also tried to establish a connection between FoP and librarians.
*Ukraine* Wikimedia Ukraine has a bill for full FoP in the Culture Committee in the country's parliament. However, the Ministry will propose to limit it to no-commercial. Also, the bill is not on the working agenda, as other issues are prioritised. We worked on drafting a Frequently Asked Questions page to all members of the Culture Committee that explains why NC restrictions don't work. We also discussed how to work with the media to put FoP on the agenda. We will be waiting for a "media cycle" that we can piggy back on and in the meanwhile prepare the communications. We will also work on getting European-level experts to send letters of support to the parliament.
*Kosovo* A copyright reform bill is currently in the parliament. Two MPs have contacted Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group to cooperate. The goal is to push for a full FoP, free re-use of government works and several other minor changes. The challenge is how not to dilute the message when asking for multiple things. We worked on a letter to all MPs, getting like-minded groups to also support all or part of our requests and are also planning on getting European-level experts to send letters of support to the parliament.
*Latvia* The FoP issue is not a priority in Latvia and the local User Group needs to find a clever way to push it onto the agenda. We discussed how to work with the national tourism board to form a more attractive coalition that the media might be interested in. We will even try to find a sculptor who supports this. Unexpected alliances are something journalists are always interested in!
Cheers, Dimi