Wikimedia and the EU October 2014 Report

tl;dr The Court of Justice of the EU ruled, that embedding copyrighted videos cannot constitute copyright infringement. The European Wikimedia chapters published their position paper on copyright reform in the EU.

This and past reports: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor

ToC 1. FKAGEU: Position paper on EU copyright published

2. CJEU: Copyright ruling on embedded videos

3. Commissioner Ansip: offline and online hearings

4. Commissioner Oettinger: Internet levies? Ancillary copyright? “Google tax”?

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#fixcopyright #Wikimedia

1.FKAGEU: Position paper on EU copyright published

Why is this relevant? It is the first time Wikimedians in Europe (chapters, thematic organisations, user-groups and individuals) officially propose changes to copyright directly to the European Commission. It is our first common position paper [1], has already been sent to the relevant EU institutions. In the years to come, it will serve as a reference point for our activities. While the very first joint document, the Statement of Intent [2] was addressing internal stakeholders, our “Position Paper #1” is a document targeted at a wider, political audience.

What happened? The structure and statements of the recently inaugurated European Commission give some reason to believe that copyright reform will indeed be one of their top priorities. [3][4][5] From one-on-one conversations we know that the responsible units have already started drafting the text of the legislative proposal. As there are internal struggles within the institutions about which way to go and our issues aren’t the most visible in the wider political debate, we decided to publish a letter that strengthens the reform-friendly bureaucrats’ position and brings attention to our priorities.

Our “Position Paper on EU Copyright Reform” has been signed by 32 organisations in total, 16 of them being European Wikimeida affiliates.

What comes next? Apart from sending it out and publishing some blogposts and tweets [20][21][22][23][24] along the way, we’re asking public officials to meet with us to have the opportunity to explain our proposed solutions in more detail and forge closer personal relationships. We have already received invitations to meet with units “copyright” and “counterfeiting and piracy” of the European Commission, as well as with the office of the Internal Market Commission chair of the European Parliament.

Before the end of the year Copyright for Creativity [6] - a copyright reform coalition including EFF, EuroISPA, IFLA, BEUC, IA and EDRI - will release their manifesto, which is perfectly compatible with our position paper. This has been coordinated in order to cascade like-minded efforts in the most effective way.

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#CJEU #copyright #embedding

2.CJEU: Copyright ruling on embedded videos

Why is this relevant? An answer to one of the more fundamental copyright questions on the internet. Is embedding content that violates copyright on a website a case of copyright infringement on its own? Can be made legally responsible if one of the videos framed into my website infringes copyright?

What happened? The German courts referred a case to the Court of Justice of the European Union where a water filter producer embedded on its own site a promotional video of a competitor that was available on YouTube.

The European court ruled [7], that embedding does not constitute a new “communication to the public” in the sense of the Copyright in the Information Society Directive from 2011 [8] and thus cannot be a considered copyright infringement.

This is the second time the court in Luxembourg has ruled on internet copyright using common sense. Earlier this year, in the so-called Svensson case, it decided that linking cannot constitute copyright infringement. [9]

What comes next? The German court will have to implement this position in its decision following the CJEU ruling which was only preliminary.

Further reading: [10][11]

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#Ansip #EPhearings2014 #askansip

3.Commissioner Ansip: offline and online hearings

Why is this relevant? This time around there is a Vice-President of the Commission responsible for the “digital single market”. And while this title doesn’t immediately ring the “Free Knowledge” bell, it must be noted that a digital single market is impossible without harmonisation, which in turn cannot be achieved without a meaningful copyright reform.

What happened? Mr. Ansip appeared comparatively well prepared [12][13][14], which made it somewhat strange to hear him apologise for not being able to prepare well due to illness. On copyright issues he repeated several times that territoriality and geo-blocking are unacceptable and specifically called copyright “prohibitive” citing text and data mining as an example.

Here’s the other highlights:

*Net Neutrality is important (comment: but then he spoke about search neutrality so I am confused)

*Right to be forgotten must remain an exception (meaning: unclear)

*Access to internet is a human right and we need an internet rights charta (comment: sounds great)

*Data protection is very important (comment: avoided clear wording on what this means)

*Software code produced for the EU must be open source or free software (comment: we should try to make the point that the same applies for knowledge produced for the EU)

What comes next? Him hiring staff, getting proper offices and starting to look over Oettinger’s DG. It will be interesting to see which one will be more daring, i.e. whether Ansip will push for more change while Oettinger remains rather cautious or vice-versa.

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#Oettinger #Googletax #copyright

4. Commissioner Oettinger: Internet copyright levy? Ancillary copyright? Or “Google tax”?

Why is this relevant? Copyright is a framework of related rights, exceptions, limitations, levies and court rulings. As the calls for more access to content are coupled with dropping revenues for certain products in some sectors, alternative financing models are sometimes proposed. Changing the financing model would shift the entire framework.

Levies are taxes on, for instance, audio tapes or video cassettes, basically anything that can be used to record and share copyrighted material. The money raised is then distributed over collecting societies in order to make up for a (one might argue alleged) loss of income due to these technologies.

What happened? German Commissioner Oettinger scored an article with virtually every news outlet last week [15][16][17][18] by connecting two statements: we need a European copyright (nothing new) and a European-wide copyright levy (never before proposed by a high-level official). He also singled out Google in his interview, which had people talk about a “Google tax”. As a further reaction, Irish Minister of State and European Affairs Dara Murphy felt compelled to dismiss these plans as “protectionism”. [19] (NB: Google’s EU headquarters are in Dublin.) Mr. Oettinger himself admitted that this would be a rather long dialogue and that the underlying questions are “What is intellectual property?” and “What kind of authors’ rights should result from it?”.

What comes next? Although asking the fundamental questions is certainly necessary, it is unclear how these will influence the intention to have a reform text published as soon as possible, emphasised during earlier public appearances. Will the big questions be only touched upon if we’re discussing levies? Will there be two separate, albeit intertwined, discussions and dossiers - one on copyright itself and another one on levies? I will ask these questions next week when I meet with the copyright unit that is being transferred to Mr. Oettinger’s DG.

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[1]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Position_Paper_on_EU_Copyright

[2]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Statement_of_Intent

[3]http://juncker.epp.eu/node/165

[4]http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker-commission/docs/oettinger_en.pdf

[5]http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker-commission/docs/ansip_en.pdf

[6]http://copyright4creativity.eu/

[7]http://www.new-media-law.net/ger/aktuelles/EuGH_C_348_13_Framing.pdf

[8] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2001:167:0010:001...

[9] http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=147847&am...

[10] http://torrentfreak.com/embedding-copyright-infringement-eu-court-rules-1410...

[11]http://ipkitten.blogspot.be/2014/10/that-bestwater-order-its-up-to.html

[12] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/bg/committees/video?event=20141006-183...

[13] http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/andrus-ansips-confirmation-hearing-live...

[14]https://storify.com/DigitalAgendaEU/askansip

[15]http://euobserver.com/justice/126318

[16] http://www.businessinsider.com/r-eus-oettinger-mulls-levy-on-google-handelsb...

[17] http://www.zdnet.com/europes-new-digital-chief-talks-of-google-copyright-tax...

[18] http://www.tageblatt.lu/nachrichten/europa/story/Auch-im-Internet-kosten-Wer...

[19] http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/technology/minister-dismisses-com...

[20] http://www.access-info.org/index.php/en/european-union/628-reform-copyright-...

[21] https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2014/10/free-knowledge-advocacy-group-eu-publi...

[22] http://blog.wikimedia.de/2014/10/29/eine-geschichte-aus-zwei-urheberrechten-...

[23] http://blog.wikimedia.cz/2014/11/evropska-reforma-autorskeho-prava-a-hnuti-w...

[24]https://twitter.com/creativecommons/status/527858541806485504