Hi Dimi,
Tell me if this isn't appropriate for a public list, or whether it's too EU microscopic a question, but are you hearing anything on the grapevine about the likely implications at DG Connect of it getting
(i) Oettinger as its new Commissioner, and (ii) the Copyright policy team being transferred over from DG Market ?
Both are presumably likely to have major implications.
DG Connect (which also covers telecom regulation as a big part of its brief) and its various predecessors has in the past very much been 'our' directorate in Brussels, pushing hard for freedom and openness, never more so than when Neelie Kroes (together with DG Research) got the Copyright white paper kicked back to be re-done a few months ago.
The present DG, Robert Madelin, spoke a few days ago to EurActiv http://www.euractiv.com/sections/innovation-enterprise/robert-madelin-eu-not... with words about copyright very much in that vein (scroll down about 4 screens), focussing on the need to enable better text and data mining (potentially a significant issue for Wikidata), and other issues.
Moving copyright away from DG Markt could represent a big slap in the face from Juncker for the (stand-still) approach behind the previous whitepaper.
In his "mandate letter" to Oettinger, it certainly sounds as if he wants some changes -- changes that Madelin's interview also appears very much to sing along with: http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker-commission/docs/oettinger_en.pdf
Juncker's aims for the portfolio (p.4) "we will need to break down national silos in telecoms regulation, in copyright and data protection legislation, in the management of radio waves and in the application of competition law."
(ie much more Europeanisation and harmonisation of law)
"You should also ensure that users are at the centre of your action. They should be able to use their mobile phones across Europe without having to pay roaming charges. They should be offered access to services, music, movies and sports events on their electronic devices wherever they are in Europe and regardless of borders. You will also need to ensure that the right conditions are set, including through copyright law, to support cultural and creative industries and exploit their potential for the economy."
(Again, European-wide access to viewing subscriptions to copyright materials, overriding national-limited rights agreements is going to be quite a shift -- but very much in line with Juncker's commitment to Europeanisation)
"Preparing, as part of the project team steered and coordinated by the Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, ambitious legislative steps towards a connected Digital Single Market. You should be ready to present these within the first six months, and they should be based on a clear assessment of the main obstacles still to be removed through EU action, either by implementing existing policies or proposing new measures...
"Copyright rules should be modernised, during the first part of this mandate, in the light of the digital revolution, new consumer behaviour and Europe’s cultural diversity... [alongside telecoms rules and spectrum allocation, both identified as priorities].
But does this mean the existing DG Markt team lost the argument, and are now going to have to pipe to a new tune ?
Or is it not so simple, and having lost Neelie Kroes *and* with a new influx of officials from DG Markt, is there a danger of the new team no longer being such cheerleaders for the case of freedom and openness ? (Open Knowledge, Open Data, Open Source, Open Access, Open Licensing, etc... )
I am interested as to what is the thinking on the ground in Brussels about this?
As for Oettinger himself, his first action seems to have been to fire a shot at Google, committing himself that its "market power could be limited, adding that he would work to ensure that the search engine's services preserve neutrality and objectivity." http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/10/us-europe-google-oettinger-idUSKBN...
But that may be particularly a play to a domestic German audience. As former MEP Andrew Duff notes, a systematic trait of Juncker's commission is that "Juncker has identified the trouble spots and appointed the Commissioner-designate from the most troublesome country to look after that very dossier."
So, "The German Gunther Oettinger who hails from the country that is the most protectionist against US digital enterprise is given the digital agenda portfolio." http://andrewduff.blogactiv.eu/2014/09/10/jean-claude-gsoh/
It may not be surprising therefore if Oettinger feels he needs to publicly establish a particular distance from Google, even though the Google competition case(s) don't at all fall within his remit -- how to prioritise them or not is a matter for DG Competition.
He's also of course just spent 5 years fighting environmentalists (including his own department) at DG Environment, which means the Greens hate him, and no doubt it's probably mutual.
This too makes it important to make sure that he doesn't identify 'Digital Agenda' / Open Culture with utopian Greens and Pirates and other radicals (or at least not only them); but with hard-as-nail calculating economistic neo-liberals like Neelie Kroes.
The publishers, having previously said it was "absolutely crucial" that the copyright brief remained with DG Markt are now "looking forward to meeting with the new commissioner to explain how copyright underpins the dynamic and innovative businesses in publishing and the wider creative industries." http://www.thebookseller.com/news/juncker-commission-moves-copyright-enforce...
One thing I'd be interested to hear thoughts on is whether Robert Madelin is likely to remain in post as DG Connect's director general, and therefore effectively become the new boss of the officials who've just been moved over from DG Market.
In particular, Oettinger is notorious for being, in userbox terms, only an (en-2) speaker.
Does Madelin speak good German? (almost certainly, but do we know?) Is Oettinger likely to prefer somebody with more native German?
Oettinger's also presumably likely to install quite a German-speaking personal cabinet; which is therefore more likely to take its tune from positions in the Copyright debate in more German-speaking countries. Are there significant issues (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, etc) to be aware of in that?
I assume, because it's quite a tech directorate, there are people we have reasonably good informal relations with at various levels in DG Connect (or if we don't, we know orgs/people that do), and probably even more so in DG Digit.
Are we getting any sense from them as to which way *they* think the winds may be blowing? Who is up and who is down, and who is likely to come out on top in the end?
Is there anything we can do for *them* in the near future.
Do *they* think there will be new work needed to re-establish the positive economic case for freedom and openness with the new team, and of course our own signature issues like FoP ? (see also OT note on FoP issue below)
Are things in the balance? Are there arguments that people in there need evidence/zingers to help to make? What can we do to help?
Is there a risk the whole DG could go to the dark side?
Fundamentally, we need to know where things are at.
But that's quite enough email for now,
All best,
James.
(OT, but key issue with FoP: we need to make sure it is clarified not a permitted-use exemption, but rather an exemption from a copyright being inherited into the derived work in the first place. This is important, because a permitted-use exemption technically only applies in the country where the use is permitted, whereas no derived copyright at all in the work would apply worldwide -- we got caught a couple of years ago by a US takedown of some photographs of sculptures in the U.K. on just this point).
it now a priority to re-establish particular issues like FoP, and others where DG Connect
A little more:
* By background Oettinger is a tax lawyer, not in full-spectrum law firm, but in a specialist tax and accountancy firm that he ran.
At university he read law and economics.
* According to a profile, http://www.thelocal.de/20140911/gunther-oettinger-foot-in-mouth-to-brussels-... his English is said to be now much improved.
Recently he has been particularly active in the Ukraine, on behalf of Germany and the EU, trying to broker talks between the Russians and the Ukrainians. (He got the job since energy is so important to the conflict) Together with the EU's new foreign policy commissioner, he was leading a briefing and discussion session on the topic this afternoon for the new commissioners.
A memo to him from think-tank Bruegel (written before the post had also acquired the copyright responsibility) emphasises identifying a clear vision for telecoms reform as a priority. The expectation is that there will be approval for significantly more consolidation, in return for more investment; with the question of net neutrality also to consider. http://eu2do.bruegel.org/digital-agenda/
Given Oettinger's recent background dealing with multinationals at Energy, this may be one of the parts of the job he feels most at home with.
Regarding copyright, but across the board Juncker seems to have downgraded regulation (eg moving medicines approval from health to industry !?) in favour of enterprise; also trying to emphasis the interests of regular users/consumers; and using this to build the case for more Europe-wide consolidation of providers/contracts/laws/integration.
All of this is likely to play towards (i) active harmonisation; and thus consequentially (ii) some liberalisation in copyright -- despite Oettinger's first very public attempt to score points at Google.
Structurally the DG, Robert Madelin, has a lot more independence than I first realised -- particularly if Oettinger has as steep a learning curve ahead of him as expected. So it could well be that what Madelin said in his interview last week on copyright might survive him now having actually gaining primary responsibility for the role, rather than just being in the position of throwing rocks at another directorate.
(And surely he knew this was coming, when he made his remarks).
So that is encouraging.
But it would still be good to know what are likely to be the strongest influences on Oettinger as he comes to assess where he (and of course his Estonian overlord Andrus Ansip want copyright to be going).
For example, are there any particular CDU MEPs with positions on copyright, that may be influential? Are there particular CDU positions in Germany? Does Oettinger still have much in the way of strong links to Wuttemberg?
A big thing will be who he ends up appointing into his personal cabinet to do his thinking for him on this. I guess we just have to wait and see, but it would be good to know if there are any connections we can make to try to find out which way things are going.
-- James.
On 10/09/2014 22:54, James Heald wrote:
Hi Dimi,
Tell me if this isn't appropriate for a public list, or whether it's too EU microscopic a question, but are you hearing anything on the grapevine about the likely implications at DG Connect of it getting
(i) Oettinger as its new Commissioner, and (ii) the Copyright policy team being transferred over from DG Market ?
Both are presumably likely to have major implications.
DG Connect (which also covers telecom regulation as a big part of its brief) and its various predecessors has in the past very much been 'our' directorate in Brussels, pushing hard for freedom and openness, never more so than when Neelie Kroes (together with DG Research) got the Copyright white paper kicked back to be re-done a few months ago.
The present DG, Robert Madelin, spoke a few days ago to EurActiv http://www.euractiv.com/sections/innovation-enterprise/robert-madelin-eu-not...
with words about copyright very much in that vein (scroll down about 4 screens), focussing on the need to enable better text and data mining (potentially a significant issue for Wikidata), and other issues.
Moving copyright away from DG Markt could represent a big slap in the face from Juncker for the (stand-still) approach behind the previous whitepaper.
In his "mandate letter" to Oettinger, it certainly sounds as if he wants some changes -- changes that Madelin's interview also appears very much to sing along with: http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker-commission/docs/oettinger_en.pdf
Juncker's aims for the portfolio (p.4) "we will need to break down national silos in telecoms regulation, in copyright and data protection legislation, in the management of radio waves and in the application of competition law."
(ie much more Europeanisation and harmonisation of law)
"You should also ensure that users are at the centre of your action. They should be able to use their mobile phones across Europe without having to pay roaming charges. They should be offered access to services, music, movies and sports events on their electronic devices wherever they are in Europe and regardless of borders. You will also need to ensure that the right conditions are set, including through copyright law, to support cultural and creative industries and exploit their potential for the economy."
(Again, European-wide access to viewing subscriptions to copyright materials, overriding national-limited rights agreements is going to be quite a shift -- but very much in line with Juncker's commitment to Europeanisation)
"Preparing, as part of the project team steered and coordinated by the Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, ambitious legislative steps towards a connected Digital Single Market. You should be ready to present these within the first six months, and they should be based on a clear assessment of the main obstacles still to be removed through EU action, either by implementing existing policies or proposing new measures...
"Copyright rules should be modernised, during the first part of this mandate, in the light of the digital revolution, new consumer behaviour and Europe’s cultural diversity... [alongside telecoms rules and spectrum allocation, both identified as priorities].
But does this mean the existing DG Markt team lost the argument, and are now going to have to pipe to a new tune ?
Or is it not so simple, and having lost Neelie Kroes *and* with a new influx of officials from DG Markt, is there a danger of the new team no longer being such cheerleaders for the case of freedom and openness ? (Open Knowledge, Open Data, Open Source, Open Access, Open Licensing, etc... )
I am interested as to what is the thinking on the ground in Brussels about this?
As for Oettinger himself, his first action seems to have been to fire a shot at Google, committing himself that its "market power could be limited, adding that he would work to ensure that the search engine's services preserve neutrality and objectivity." http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/10/us-europe-google-oettinger-idUSKBN...
But that may be particularly a play to a domestic German audience. As former MEP Andrew Duff notes, a systematic trait of Juncker's commission is that "Juncker has identified the trouble spots and appointed the Commissioner-designate from the most troublesome country to look after that very dossier."
So, "The German Gunther Oettinger who hails from the country that is the most protectionist against US digital enterprise is given the digital agenda portfolio." http://andrewduff.blogactiv.eu/2014/09/10/jean-claude-gsoh/
It may not be surprising therefore if Oettinger feels he needs to publicly establish a particular distance from Google, even though the Google competition case(s) don't at all fall within his remit -- how to prioritise them or not is a matter for DG Competition.
He's also of course just spent 5 years fighting environmentalists (including his own department) at DG Environment, which means the Greens hate him, and no doubt it's probably mutual.
This too makes it important to make sure that he doesn't identify 'Digital Agenda' / Open Culture with utopian Greens and Pirates and other radicals (or at least not only them); but with hard-as-nail calculating economistic neo-liberals like Neelie Kroes.
The publishers, having previously said it was "absolutely crucial" that the copyright brief remained with DG Markt are now "looking forward to meeting with the new commissioner to explain how copyright underpins the dynamic and innovative businesses in publishing and the wider creative industries." http://www.thebookseller.com/news/juncker-commission-moves-copyright-enforce...
One thing I'd be interested to hear thoughts on is whether Robert Madelin is likely to remain in post as DG Connect's director general, and therefore effectively become the new boss of the officials who've just been moved over from DG Market.
In particular, Oettinger is notorious for being, in userbox terms, only an (en-2) speaker.
Does Madelin speak good German? (almost certainly, but do we know?) Is Oettinger likely to prefer somebody with more native German?
Oettinger's also presumably likely to install quite a German-speaking personal cabinet; which is therefore more likely to take its tune from positions in the Copyright debate in more German-speaking countries. Are there significant issues (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, etc) to be aware of in that?
I assume, because it's quite a tech directorate, there are people we have reasonably good informal relations with at various levels in DG Connect (or if we don't, we know orgs/people that do), and probably even more so in DG Digit.
Are we getting any sense from them as to which way *they* think the winds may be blowing? Who is up and who is down, and who is likely to come out on top in the end?
Is there anything we can do for *them* in the near future.
Do *they* think there will be new work needed to re-establish the positive economic case for freedom and openness with the new team, and of course our own signature issues like FoP ? (see also OT note on FoP issue below)
Are things in the balance? Are there arguments that people in there need evidence/zingers to help to make? What can we do to help?
Is there a risk the whole DG could go to the dark side?
Fundamentally, we need to know where things are at.
But that's quite enough email for now,
All best,
James.(OT, but key issue with FoP: we need to make sure it is clarified not a permitted-use exemption, but rather an exemption from a copyright being inherited into the derived work in the first place. This is important, because a permitted-use exemption technically only applies in the country where the use is permitted, whereas no derived copyright at all in the work would apply worldwide -- we got caught a couple of years ago by a US takedown of some photographs of sculptures in the U.K. on just this point).
HI James,
thank you for the very thourough research and and sorry for answering just now. A lot of things are coming together after the summer break bumping my response time to well over the 24h benchmark.
I don't think it is inappropriate to discuss these things on a public mailing list, as it is pretty much what people discuss on any public forum on EU politics these days. Also, what I got from the lobbying discussion at Wikimania is that we should try to be painfully open about our advocacy efforts and this in my mind includes public discussion.
Here's some of the things that are being talked about (well, gossiped about at this point) in Brussels:
*Structure* Structurally the changes aren't bad at a first sight. DG Connect has always been much closer to the entire civil society/reformists position than DG MARKT. The latter basically just want to have everything licensed and are afraid to make a move which could upset some big industry. DG Connect has been basically on our side on topics ranging from text and data mining over open access to the re-use of public sector information. Having an additional VP on the digital single market clearly supports the seriousness of Juncker's claim to make copyright reform (i.e. harmonisation) a priority. Also, when it comes to digital issues it is clear which VP is responsible for DG Connect. Other VPs might have overlapping portfolios, which isn't always good. What people here are really puzzled about is the statement that VPs will have the right to veto proposals within their sector. The reason why this is so strange is that in the past Commission decisions have always been taken unanimously, meaning that every Commissioner had the power to veto any decision. We don't know what this statement means but feel like something has been sneaked by us and/or the media. But maybe there are just too many Commissioners now and not enough portfolios and this many-VPs arrangement is just an attempt to create enough seats.
*Appointments* Oettinger has said himself that he knows close to nothing about the sector but believe he can catch up. Nevertheless this feels like it has been a slap in the face for Germany on the meta-political level. Maybe because Merkel didn't support Juncker at first, bust that's just political astrology. Robert Madelin (whose Twitter account is @EuroHumph btw, a wink to the series "Yes, Minister") has been running a large part of the show in DG Connect under Kores and I don't see why this should stop. The thing about Robert is that he's neither for nor against copyright reform, he's game is what you can call "practical politics". The idea to put net neutrality and roaming charges in one package was his, because he had previously brokered a deal with the Telcos - removal or roaming charges for the acceptance of special services on the internet. The exctiting question for us now is whether the entire copyright unit is just moving from one DG to another of if the new Commissioners will also restructure it. Currently we have a good working relationship with DG MARKT's copyright unit and I believe the people working there do see the sense in what we have to say are very open and welcoming whenever we contact them. The Estonian Commissioner is a bit of an enigma. Good news is that we have an active community and chapter in Estonia and they promised to do some recon on him. He's been a staunch supporter of ACTA and is no digital native. He also picks up a lot of the big industry examples (the success of Skype), but if the goal is to harmonise the EU copyright framework and remove national borders on the digital single market that's not the worst thing.
*Side-note on medicines* The people I know working on access to medicines are actually quite happy about the re-shuffling in this field, but I can't give you any background on why. I believe it has something to do with the people working in the DGs. If you are interested drop me a line and I will ask for you.
*Future Action* The hearings are upon us and I am sure the Commissioners working on our issues will get asked tough questions. And although Kroes proved that you can be great at speeches but terrible at acting on it, it is still at good litmus test. This being said, if you can think of any particularly good questions for the hearings, please share and we'll propose them to the MEPs.
Once the hearings are done with and the new Commissioners and moved units have unpacked their boxes we'll welcome them with our position paper on copyright [1] and seeking out personal meetings with the key figures. The idea here is to strengthen the people who want a meaningful reform ahead of the release of the White Paper on Copyright (which is of course also moving DGs).
While copyright was at DG MARKT we knew we have to put a price tag on the public domain. Now the need for this is less acute, but nevertheless it would be good to have such research. I am having an IPR Observatory working group meeting this month and hope to hear news on a study we requested on "The contribution of public domain and open licensing to the European economy". Such research would be an important cornerstone in our supporting documentation.
I am carefully optimistic.
Cheers, Dimi
[1]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Position_Paper_on_EU_Copyright
2014-09-11 22:32 GMT+02:00 James Heald j.heald@ucl.ac.uk:
A little more:
- By background Oettinger is a tax lawyer, not in full-spectrum law firm,
but in a specialist tax and accountancy firm that he ran.
At university he read law and economics.
- According to a profile,
http://www.thelocal.de/20140911/gunther-oettinger- foot-in-mouth-to-brussels-native his English is said to be now much improved.
Recently he has been particularly active in the Ukraine, on behalf of Germany and the EU, trying to broker talks between the Russians and the Ukrainians. (He got the job since energy is so important to the conflict) Together with the EU's new foreign policy commissioner, he was leading a briefing and discussion session on the topic this afternoon for the new commissioners.
A memo to him from think-tank Bruegel (written before the post had also acquired the copyright responsibility) emphasises identifying a clear vision for telecoms reform as a priority. The expectation is that there will be approval for significantly more consolidation, in return for more investment; with the question of net neutrality also to consider. http://eu2do.bruegel.org/digital-agenda/
Given Oettinger's recent background dealing with multinationals at Energy, this may be one of the parts of the job he feels most at home with.
Regarding copyright, but across the board Juncker seems to have downgraded regulation (eg moving medicines approval from health to industry !?) in favour of enterprise; also trying to emphasis the interests of regular users/consumers; and using this to build the case for more Europe-wide consolidation of providers/contracts/laws/integration.
All of this is likely to play towards (i) active harmonisation; and thus consequentially (ii) some liberalisation in copyright -- despite Oettinger's first very public attempt to score points at Google.
Structurally the DG, Robert Madelin, has a lot more independence than I first realised -- particularly if Oettinger has as steep a learning curve ahead of him as expected. So it could well be that what Madelin said in his interview last week on copyright might survive him now having actually gaining primary responsibility for the role, rather than just being in the position of throwing rocks at another directorate.
(And surely he knew this was coming, when he made his remarks).
So that is encouraging.
But it would still be good to know what are likely to be the strongest influences on Oettinger as he comes to assess where he (and of course his Estonian overlord Andrus Ansip want copyright to be going).
For example, are there any particular CDU MEPs with positions on copyright, that may be influential? Are there particular CDU positions in Germany? Does Oettinger still have much in the way of strong links to Wuttemberg?
A big thing will be who he ends up appointing into his personal cabinet to do his thinking for him on this. I guess we just have to wait and see, but it would be good to know if there are any connections we can make to try to find out which way things are going.
-- James.
On 10/09/2014 22:54, James Heald wrote:
Hi Dimi,
Tell me if this isn't appropriate for a public list, or whether it's too EU microscopic a question, but are you hearing anything on the grapevine about the likely implications at DG Connect of it getting
(i) Oettinger as its new Commissioner, and (ii) the Copyright policy team being transferred over from DG Market ?
Both are presumably likely to have major implications.
DG Connect (which also covers telecom regulation as a big part of its brief) and its various predecessors has in the past very much been 'our' directorate in Brussels, pushing hard for freedom and openness, never more so than when Neelie Kroes (together with DG Research) got the Copyright white paper kicked back to be re-done a few months ago.
The present DG, Robert Madelin, spoke a few days ago to EurActiv http://www.euractiv.com/sections/innovation-enterprise/robert-madelin-eu- not-putting-its-money-where-its-mouth-broadband
with words about copyright very much in that vein (scroll down about 4 screens), focussing on the need to enable better text and data mining (potentially a significant issue for Wikidata), and other issues.
Moving copyright away from DG Markt could represent a big slap in the face from Juncker for the (stand-still) approach behind the previous whitepaper.
In his "mandate letter" to Oettinger, it certainly sounds as if he wants some changes -- changes that Madelin's interview also appears very much to sing along with: http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker-commission/docs/oettinger_en.pdf
Juncker's aims for the portfolio (p.4) "we will need to break down national silos in telecoms regulation, in copyright and data protection legislation, in the management of radio waves and in the application of competition law."
(ie much more Europeanisation and harmonisation of law)
"You should also ensure that users are at the centre of your action. They should be able to use their mobile phones across Europe without having to pay roaming charges. They should be offered access to services, music, movies and sports events on their electronic devices wherever they are in Europe and regardless of borders. You will also need to ensure that the right conditions are set, including through copyright law, to support cultural and creative industries and exploit their potential for the economy."
(Again, European-wide access to viewing subscriptions to copyright materials, overriding national-limited rights agreements is going to be quite a shift -- but very much in line with Juncker's commitment to Europeanisation)
"Preparing, as part of the project team steered and coordinated by the Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, ambitious legislative steps towards a connected Digital Single Market. You should be ready to present these within the first six months, and they should be based on a clear assessment of the main obstacles still to be removed through EU action, either by implementing existing policies or proposing new measures...
"Copyright rules should be modernised, during the first part of this mandate, in the light of the digital revolution, new consumer behaviour and Europe’s cultural diversity... [alongside telecoms rules and spectrum allocation, both identified as priorities].
But does this mean the existing DG Markt team lost the argument, and are now going to have to pipe to a new tune ?
Or is it not so simple, and having lost Neelie Kroes *and* with a new influx of officials from DG Markt, is there a danger of the new team no longer being such cheerleaders for the case of freedom and openness ? (Open Knowledge, Open Data, Open Source, Open Access, Open Licensing, etc... )
I am interested as to what is the thinking on the ground in Brussels about this?
As for Oettinger himself, his first action seems to have been to fire a shot at Google, committing himself that its "market power could be limited, adding that he would work to ensure that the search engine's services preserve neutrality and objectivity." http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/10/us-europe-google-oettinger- idUSKBN0H519U20140910
But that may be particularly a play to a domestic German audience. As former MEP Andrew Duff notes, a systematic trait of Juncker's commission is that "Juncker has identified the trouble spots and appointed the Commissioner-designate from the most troublesome country to look after that very dossier."
So, "The German Gunther Oettinger who hails from the country that is the most protectionist against US digital enterprise is given the digital agenda portfolio." http://andrewduff.blogactiv.eu/2014/09/10/jean-claude-gsoh/
It may not be surprising therefore if Oettinger feels he needs to publicly establish a particular distance from Google, even though the Google competition case(s) don't at all fall within his remit -- how to prioritise them or not is a matter for DG Competition.
He's also of course just spent 5 years fighting environmentalists (including his own department) at DG Environment, which means the Greens hate him, and no doubt it's probably mutual.
This too makes it important to make sure that he doesn't identify 'Digital Agenda' / Open Culture with utopian Greens and Pirates and other radicals (or at least not only them); but with hard-as-nail calculating economistic neo-liberals like Neelie Kroes.
The publishers, having previously said it was "absolutely crucial" that the copyright brief remained with DG Markt are now "looking forward to meeting with the new commissioner to explain how copyright underpins the dynamic and innovative businesses in publishing and the wider creative industries." http://www.thebookseller.com/news/juncker-commission-moves- copyright-enforcement.html
One thing I'd be interested to hear thoughts on is whether Robert Madelin is likely to remain in post as DG Connect's director general, and therefore effectively become the new boss of the officials who've just been moved over from DG Market.
In particular, Oettinger is notorious for being, in userbox terms, only an (en-2) speaker.
Does Madelin speak good German? (almost certainly, but do we know?) Is Oettinger likely to prefer somebody with more native German?
Oettinger's also presumably likely to install quite a German-speaking personal cabinet; which is therefore more likely to take its tune from positions in the Copyright debate in more German-speaking countries. Are there significant issues (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, etc) to be aware of in that?
I assume, because it's quite a tech directorate, there are people we have reasonably good informal relations with at various levels in DG Connect (or if we don't, we know orgs/people that do), and probably even more so in DG Digit.
Are we getting any sense from them as to which way *they* think the winds may be blowing? Who is up and who is down, and who is likely to come out on top in the end?
Is there anything we can do for *them* in the near future.
Do *they* think there will be new work needed to re-establish the positive economic case for freedom and openness with the new team, and of course our own signature issues like FoP ? (see also OT note on FoP issue below)
Are things in the balance? Are there arguments that people in there need evidence/zingers to help to make? What can we do to help?
Is there a risk the whole DG could go to the dark side?
Fundamentally, we need to know where things are at.
But that's quite enough email for now,
All best,
James.(OT, but key issue with FoP: we need to make sure it is clarified not a permitted-use exemption, but rather an exemption from a copyright being inherited into the derived work in the first place. This is important, because a permitted-use exemption technically only applies in the country where the use is permitted, whereas no derived copyright at all in the work would apply worldwide -- we got caught a couple of years ago by a US takedown of some photographs of sculptures in the U.K. on just this point).
Advocacy_Advisors mailing list Advocacy_Advisors@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy_advisors
Hi Dimi,
Really useful analysis. Thank you.
Regarding contribution of the public domain, I see that http://www.fixcopyright.eu/ -- scroll down to the last section
is claiming EUR 1.1 trillion as the value of industries relying on Copyright exceptions in Europe (9.3% of GDP), compared to 16% of GDP estimated as the added value of the Fair Use industry in the United States.
These figures are presumably counterpoints to the infamous "%GDP of Industries relying on Copyright" figures that regularly get trotted out, so I presume probably equally bogus -- though useful to have, because calculated on the same bogus basis, to show it can prove anything.
As for the Commission, I've seen a few pieces now saying that Juncker seems seems quite tilted towards the interests of established larger companies, with regulatory and environmental voices in the structure being downgraded, and/or merging conflicting voices/powerbases inside the Commission into the same directorate, reducing silo vs silo battles within the Commission by apparently burying the institutional critical voice within rather than outside the directorate. (I'm interested by your comment about medicines, and would be fascinated to know more about that, but probably off list).
On Telecoms, Oettinger is presented as being likely to be closer to the big ex-national-monopoly incumbents; particularly Deutsche Telekom. eg http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20140910&a... but I've seen the same comment elsewhere.
On Google, this WSJ piece highlights the "extraordinary pressure being deployed by German interests, above all publishing houses... German media associations did speak with other commissioners and their cabinets, it was an ongoing process all summer."
http://online.wsj.com/articles/german-french-pressure-led-to-eus-about-face-...
So I guess if it is Springer vs Google for the future of Europe's copyright policy, we know that Springer etc already know their way to Oettinger's door.
I guess that's just part of the landscape that we have to work with.
Do the Brussels lobbyists for the likes of Springer and the press publishers' associations BDZV and VDZ have a sense of where their orgs stand on some of the smaller copyright issues, the ones that are so important to us, like unified and liberal rules on FoP and other anomalies? Presumably they might not be unfavourable to more European-wide consistency, and greater ease for publication of images of these things, being publishers themselves ?
Anyway, thank you very much again for your very timely dispatch from right on the spot.
All best,
James.
On 12/09/2014 11:21, Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov wrote:
HI James,
thank you for the very thourough research and and sorry for answering just now. A lot of things are coming together after the summer break bumping my response time to well over the 24h benchmark.
I don't think it is inappropriate to discuss these things on a public mailing list, as it is pretty much what people discuss on any public forum on EU politics these days. Also, what I got from the lobbying discussion at Wikimania is that we should try to be painfully open about our advocacy efforts and this in my mind includes public discussion.
Here's some of the things that are being talked about (well, gossiped about at this point) in Brussels:
*Structure* Structurally the changes aren't bad at a first sight. DG Connect has always been much closer to the entire civil society/reformists position than DG MARKT. The latter basically just want to have everything licensed and are afraid to make a move which could upset some big industry. DG Connect has been basically on our side on topics ranging from text and data mining over open access to the re-use of public sector information. Having an additional VP on the digital single market clearly supports the seriousness of Juncker's claim to make copyright reform (i.e. harmonisation) a priority. Also, when it comes to digital issues it is clear which VP is responsible for DG Connect. Other VPs might have overlapping portfolios, which isn't always good. What people here are really puzzled about is the statement that VPs will have the right to veto proposals within their sector. The reason why this is so strange is that in the past Commission decisions have always been taken unanimously, meaning that every Commissioner had the power to veto any decision. We don't know what this statement means but feel like something has been sneaked by us and/or the media. But maybe there are just too many Commissioners now and not enough portfolios and this many-VPs arrangement is just an attempt to create enough seats.
*Appointments* Oettinger has said himself that he knows close to nothing about the sector but believe he can catch up. Nevertheless this feels like it has been a slap in the face for Germany on the meta-political level. Maybe because Merkel didn't support Juncker at first, bust that's just political astrology. Robert Madelin (whose Twitter account is @EuroHumph btw, a wink to the series "Yes, Minister") has been running a large part of the show in DG Connect under Kores and I don't see why this should stop. The thing about Robert is that he's neither for nor against copyright reform, he's game is what you can call "practical politics". The idea to put net neutrality and roaming charges in one package was his, because he had previously brokered a deal with the Telcos - removal or roaming charges for the acceptance of special services on the internet. The exctiting question for us now is whether the entire copyright unit is just moving from one DG to another of if the new Commissioners will also restructure it. Currently we have a good working relationship with DG MARKT's copyright unit and I believe the people working there do see the sense in what we have to say are very open and welcoming whenever we contact them. The Estonian Commissioner is a bit of an enigma. Good news is that we have an active community and chapter in Estonia and they promised to do some recon on him. He's been a staunch supporter of ACTA and is no digital native. He also picks up a lot of the big industry examples (the success of Skype), but if the goal is to harmonise the EU copyright framework and remove national borders on the digital single market that's not the worst thing.
*Side-note on medicines* The people I know working on access to medicines are actually quite happy about the re-shuffling in this field, but I can't give you any background on why. I believe it has something to do with the people working in the DGs. If you are interested drop me a line and I will ask for you.
*Future Action* The hearings are upon us and I am sure the Commissioners working on our issues will get asked tough questions. And although Kroes proved that you can be great at speeches but terrible at acting on it, it is still at good litmus test. This being said, if you can think of any particularly good questions for the hearings, please share and we'll propose them to the MEPs.
Once the hearings are done with and the new Commissioners and moved units have unpacked their boxes we'll welcome them with our position paper on copyright [1] and seeking out personal meetings with the key figures. The idea here is to strengthen the people who want a meaningful reform ahead of the release of the White Paper on Copyright (which is of course also moving DGs).
While copyright was at DG MARKT we knew we have to put a price tag on the public domain. Now the need for this is less acute, but nevertheless it would be good to have such research. I am having an IPR Observatory working group meeting this month and hope to hear news on a study we requested on "The contribution of public domain and open licensing to the European economy". Such research would be an important cornerstone in our supporting documentation.
I am carefully optimistic.
Cheers, Dimi
[1]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Position_Paper_on_EU_Copyright
2014-09-11 22:32 GMT+02:00 James Heald j.heald@ucl.ac.uk:
A little more:
- By background Oettinger is a tax lawyer, not in full-spectrum law firm,
but in a specialist tax and accountancy firm that he ran.
At university he read law and economics.
- According to a profile,
http://www.thelocal.de/20140911/gunther-oettinger- foot-in-mouth-to-brussels-native his English is said to be now much improved.
Recently he has been particularly active in the Ukraine, on behalf of Germany and the EU, trying to broker talks between the Russians and the Ukrainians. (He got the job since energy is so important to the conflict) Together with the EU's new foreign policy commissioner, he was leading a briefing and discussion session on the topic this afternoon for the new commissioners.
A memo to him from think-tank Bruegel (written before the post had also acquired the copyright responsibility) emphasises identifying a clear vision for telecoms reform as a priority. The expectation is that there will be approval for significantly more consolidation, in return for more investment; with the question of net neutrality also to consider. http://eu2do.bruegel.org/digital-agenda/
Given Oettinger's recent background dealing with multinationals at Energy, this may be one of the parts of the job he feels most at home with.
Regarding copyright, but across the board Juncker seems to have downgraded regulation (eg moving medicines approval from health to industry !?) in favour of enterprise; also trying to emphasis the interests of regular users/consumers; and using this to build the case for more Europe-wide consolidation of providers/contracts/laws/integration.
All of this is likely to play towards (i) active harmonisation; and thus consequentially (ii) some liberalisation in copyright -- despite Oettinger's first very public attempt to score points at Google.
Structurally the DG, Robert Madelin, has a lot more independence than I first realised -- particularly if Oettinger has as steep a learning curve ahead of him as expected. So it could well be that what Madelin said in his interview last week on copyright might survive him now having actually gaining primary responsibility for the role, rather than just being in the position of throwing rocks at another directorate.
(And surely he knew this was coming, when he made his remarks).
So that is encouraging.
But it would still be good to know what are likely to be the strongest influences on Oettinger as he comes to assess where he (and of course his Estonian overlord Andrus Ansip want copyright to be going).
For example, are there any particular CDU MEPs with positions on copyright, that may be influential? Are there particular CDU positions in Germany? Does Oettinger still have much in the way of strong links to Wuttemberg?
A big thing will be who he ends up appointing into his personal cabinet to do his thinking for him on this. I guess we just have to wait and see, but it would be good to know if there are any connections we can make to try to find out which way things are going.
-- James.
On 10/09/2014 22:54, James Heald wrote:
Hi Dimi,
Tell me if this isn't appropriate for a public list, or whether it's too EU microscopic a question, but are you hearing anything on the grapevine about the likely implications at DG Connect of it getting
(i) Oettinger as its new Commissioner, and (ii) the Copyright policy team being transferred over from DG Market ?
Both are presumably likely to have major implications.
DG Connect (which also covers telecom regulation as a big part of its brief) and its various predecessors has in the past very much been 'our' directorate in Brussels, pushing hard for freedom and openness, never more so than when Neelie Kroes (together with DG Research) got the Copyright white paper kicked back to be re-done a few months ago.
The present DG, Robert Madelin, spoke a few days ago to EurActiv http://www.euractiv.com/sections/innovation-enterprise/robert-madelin-eu- not-putting-its-money-where-its-mouth-broadband
with words about copyright very much in that vein (scroll down about 4 screens), focussing on the need to enable better text and data mining (potentially a significant issue for Wikidata), and other issues.
Moving copyright away from DG Markt could represent a big slap in the face from Juncker for the (stand-still) approach behind the previous whitepaper.
In his "mandate letter" to Oettinger, it certainly sounds as if he wants some changes -- changes that Madelin's interview also appears very much to sing along with: http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker-commission/docs/oettinger_en.pdf
Juncker's aims for the portfolio (p.4) "we will need to break down national silos in telecoms regulation, in copyright and data protection legislation, in the management of radio waves and in the application of competition law."
(ie much more Europeanisation and harmonisation of law)
"You should also ensure that users are at the centre of your action. They should be able to use their mobile phones across Europe without having to pay roaming charges. They should be offered access to services, music, movies and sports events on their electronic devices wherever they are in Europe and regardless of borders. You will also need to ensure that the right conditions are set, including through copyright law, to support cultural and creative industries and exploit their potential for the economy."
(Again, European-wide access to viewing subscriptions to copyright materials, overriding national-limited rights agreements is going to be quite a shift -- but very much in line with Juncker's commitment to Europeanisation)
"Preparing, as part of the project team steered and coordinated by the Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, ambitious legislative steps towards a connected Digital Single Market. You should be ready to present these within the first six months, and they should be based on a clear assessment of the main obstacles still to be removed through EU action, either by implementing existing policies or proposing new measures...
"Copyright rules should be modernised, during the first part of this mandate, in the light of the digital revolution, new consumer behaviour and Europe’s cultural diversity... [alongside telecoms rules and spectrum allocation, both identified as priorities].
But does this mean the existing DG Markt team lost the argument, and are now going to have to pipe to a new tune ?
Or is it not so simple, and having lost Neelie Kroes *and* with a new influx of officials from DG Markt, is there a danger of the new team no longer being such cheerleaders for the case of freedom and openness ? (Open Knowledge, Open Data, Open Source, Open Access, Open Licensing, etc... )
I am interested as to what is the thinking on the ground in Brussels about this?
As for Oettinger himself, his first action seems to have been to fire a shot at Google, committing himself that its "market power could be limited, adding that he would work to ensure that the search engine's services preserve neutrality and objectivity." http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/10/us-europe-google-oettinger- idUSKBN0H519U20140910
But that may be particularly a play to a domestic German audience. As former MEP Andrew Duff notes, a systematic trait of Juncker's commission is that "Juncker has identified the trouble spots and appointed the Commissioner-designate from the most troublesome country to look after that very dossier."
So, "The German Gunther Oettinger who hails from the country that is the most protectionist against US digital enterprise is given the digital agenda portfolio." http://andrewduff.blogactiv.eu/2014/09/10/jean-claude-gsoh/
It may not be surprising therefore if Oettinger feels he needs to publicly establish a particular distance from Google, even though the Google competition case(s) don't at all fall within his remit -- how to prioritise them or not is a matter for DG Competition.
He's also of course just spent 5 years fighting environmentalists (including his own department) at DG Environment, which means the Greens hate him, and no doubt it's probably mutual.
This too makes it important to make sure that he doesn't identify 'Digital Agenda' / Open Culture with utopian Greens and Pirates and other radicals (or at least not only them); but with hard-as-nail calculating economistic neo-liberals like Neelie Kroes.
The publishers, having previously said it was "absolutely crucial" that the copyright brief remained with DG Markt are now "looking forward to meeting with the new commissioner to explain how copyright underpins the dynamic and innovative businesses in publishing and the wider creative industries." http://www.thebookseller.com/news/juncker-commission-moves- copyright-enforcement.html
One thing I'd be interested to hear thoughts on is whether Robert Madelin is likely to remain in post as DG Connect's director general, and therefore effectively become the new boss of the officials who've just been moved over from DG Market.
In particular, Oettinger is notorious for being, in userbox terms, only an (en-2) speaker.
Does Madelin speak good German? (almost certainly, but do we know?) Is Oettinger likely to prefer somebody with more native German?
Oettinger's also presumably likely to install quite a German-speaking personal cabinet; which is therefore more likely to take its tune from positions in the Copyright debate in more German-speaking countries. Are there significant issues (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, etc) to be aware of in that?
I assume, because it's quite a tech directorate, there are people we have reasonably good informal relations with at various levels in DG Connect (or if we don't, we know orgs/people that do), and probably even more so in DG Digit.
Are we getting any sense from them as to which way *they* think the winds may be blowing? Who is up and who is down, and who is likely to come out on top in the end?
Is there anything we can do for *them* in the near future.
Do *they* think there will be new work needed to re-establish the positive economic case for freedom and openness with the new team, and of course our own signature issues like FoP ? (see also OT note on FoP issue below)
Are things in the balance? Are there arguments that people in there need evidence/zingers to help to make? What can we do to help?
Is there a risk the whole DG could go to the dark side?
Fundamentally, we need to know where things are at.
But that's quite enough email for now,
All best,
James.(OT, but key issue with FoP: we need to make sure it is clarified not a permitted-use exemption, but rather an exemption from a copyright being inherited into the derived work in the first place. This is important, because a permitted-use exemption technically only applies in the country where the use is permitted, whereas no derived copyright at all in the work would apply worldwide -- we got caught a couple of years ago by a US takedown of some photographs of sculptures in the U.K. on just this point).
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2014-09-12 13:49 GMT+02:00 James Heald j.heald@ucl.ac.uk:
Do the Brussels lobbyists for the likes of Springer and the press publishers' associations BDZV and VDZ have a sense of where their orgs stand on some of the smaller copyright issues, the ones that are so important to us, like unified and liberal rules on FoP and other anomalies? Presumably they might not be unfavourable to more European-wide consistency, and greater ease for publication of images of these things, being publishers themselves ?
No, they're against even small changes. They have no coherent arguments against things like Freedom of Panorama. They're attacking new freedoms out of principles. From their perspective any new or widened exceptions or limitations could pave to way to others, which they consider too risky. Similarly national boundaries in IP within the EU are apparently necessary to be able to pay for translations (not kidding here, that's an actual argument being made).
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