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@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@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_m...
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