tl;dr
Plenty of work on Freedom of Panorama in the Member States this month,
which is important as shifting the negotiation preconditions for a few
national governments is a very efficient way to change the dynamics in
Brussels.
This and past reports:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor>-----------------
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Freedom of Panorama has been picked up in Paris, Brussels, Rome and Tallinn
after our EU-wide #saveFoP campaign [1] last year. A step in the right
direction in any of these capitals would immensely contribute to our EU
reform effort.
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France: After Wikimédia France has managed to amend [2][3] the loi pour une
République numérique in the National Assembly so that it includes at least
partial Freedom of Panorama, we are now expecting the Senate vote to be in
May or June. Anything is still possible, from full exception to a complete
deletion. Anyone speaking French should keep their eyes open and offer
their help. Activities are being prepared ;)
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Belgium: The consequent positioning Wikimedia Belgium is finally beginning
to pay off. Members of Parliament of the ruling coalition have proposed a
full Freedom of Panorama exception in the house. It it is a mix of personal
contacts (e.g. the reception in honour of the founding of Wikimedia Belgium
was hosted by the President of the Federal Parliament [5]) and spillover
effects from the European #saveFoP campaign that has generated enough
traction for this to happen. The goal now will be to keep the file going
and not let disappear at the bottom of the waiting list.[6]
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Italy: Wikimedia Italia is working to untie a double knot. Not only is
Italy completely lacking the notion of Freedom of Panorama, but beyond that
their Heritage Law theoretically protects any building that is considered a
cultural heritage. [7] Preliminary meetings with the Minister of Culture
and Members of Parliament are taking place in order to find a way forwrad.
The idea is to use the media buzz around Wikimania to help us get some
political traction.
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Estonia: Freedom of Panorama is a given in Estonia, but only for
non-commercial purposes. Wikimedia Eesti is working strategically and hard
to change this. They have spend the past 6 months talking to almost every
relevant stakeholder in the country. Their masterpiece: A letter written by
the Estonian Architects’ Association supporting extending the exception to
all uses. A public letter that we are allowed to show around! [8]
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Net Neutrality guidelines: Since the end of last year, the European Union
has a new Telecommunications Single Market (TSM) framework. Part of the
package are rules on mobile roaming and network neutrality. The Regulation
will become applicable in April. Interestingly, BEREC (the body of national
European telecoms regulators) has the final word on some key questions. It
is currently producing implementation guidelines [9], that will settle
practical questions around “traffic management”, “specialised services” and
“zero-rating” very soon. Several wide cast lobbying campaigns targeting the
national capitals (each national regulator is a member of BEREC) are
underway.
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Commissioners talk the talk: The two Commissioners on every Brussels
digital geek’s watchlist had several public appearances. Naturally, this
led to a fair share of stargazing by all concerned stakeholders. At the
launch of Startup Europe Week, Vice-President Ansip was envisioning “a
single and connected European ecosystem” and pointing out “differences in
national regulations” are an impediment to that. [10] Commissioner
Oettinger confirmed the Audio-Visual Media Directive would be re-opened and
also didn’t miss to mention a “single regulatory framework”. [11]
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In-house news
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WMUK had its first Advocacy Working Group meeting to make out its public
policy priorities in the UK. The results show that text & data mining as
well as orphan works are the two issues they want to look into more
closely. [12]
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WMCZ, together with its free&open coalition partners, will organise a
public policy advocacy seminar on 7 April. Yours truly will be there.
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WMNO & WMLVUG: The Wikimedia groups in Norway and Latvia have co-signed the
Statement of Intent, appointed contact people and are now members of the
Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU. [13] This brings the totals up to 18 with
Bulgaria expected to join in the coming weeks. Anyone in touch with WMPT?
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WMCH & WMNO: Have decided to pitch into the EU policy fund for this year.
Thank you!!! <3 Switzerland and Norway are not EU members, but their
countries’ deals with Brussels oblige them to implement considerable parts
of EU legislation, including on digital matters. [14]
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[
1]https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_Panorama_2015
[2]http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/amendements/3399/AN/250.asp
[3]
http://blog.wikimedia.fr/aujourdhui-adoption-de-la-liberte-de-panorama-en-f…
[4]http://www.lachambre.be/FLWB/PDF/54/1484/54K1484001.pdf
[5]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Founding_event_of_Wikimedia_Bel…
[
6]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/WMBE/FoP
[
7]https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libert%C3%A0_di_panorama#Italia
[
8]https://ee.wikimedia.org/wiki/Pilt:EALi_vastus_panoraamivabadus.pdf
[9]
http://berec.europa.eu/eng/document_register/subject_matter/berec/press_rel…
[10]
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/ansip/announcements/speech-vice-p…
[11]
http://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/oettinger/announcements/new-regula…
[
12]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/WMKUK
[13]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Statement_of_Intent#Signatories
[14]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Funding/2016#Actual_Budget_for_20…