Both of the two messages below got encouraging responses off-list, but I
doubt they will get Foundation support without wider discussion, and they
certainly both transcend mere Foundation public policy advocacy concerns.
Please share your thoughts!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Subject: Librarian of Congress and Copyright Royalty Board Petitions
To: Publicpolicy Group for Wikimedia <publicpolicy(a)lists.wikimedia.org
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','publicpolicy@lists.wikimedia.org');>>
How do people feel about petitioning the Librarian of Congress for a
general copyright exemption for API header files and documentation in
light of the recent Oracle vs. Google Android Java verdict?
Has the Foundation already petitioned or supported a petition for a
general copyright exemption of taxpayer-funded research?
I think it is very clear we should certainly do both if we haven't already.
Even better, how about petitioning the three federal judges comprising
the Copyright Royalty Board to institute a sliding scale for audio
royalty distributions so that the market supports the 1970s era
pre-mass consumer copying levels of artist demand? The CRB can return
both wages for songwriters and musicians as a percentage of GDP and
royalty distribution incidence in terms of new, small, developing, and
established (e.g. top-40) artists to pre-mass piracy levels by issuing
a sliding scale royalty schedule, which controls what YouTube,
Spotify, Pandora, Apple, etc., pay when people legally stream music.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Friday, June 3, 2016
Subject: prices of pharmaceuticals in Wikipedia articles
To: Publicpolicy Group for Wikimedia <publicpolicy(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
An interesting public policy aspect has been brought to my attention
concerning pharmaceutical prices. Please see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Medicine#Price_of_…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salbutamol#Cost
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Doc_James/Price