[Advocacy Advisors] Draft letter to UK MEPs on copyright

[Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov]

Hi,

this is really a great initiative. I immediately thought that you should
report the experiences you'll have with this so it can be copied by other
EU chapters. Having an "organisation from home" asking for something is
often more efficient than receiving a letter from an interntional HQ.
Ideally, the two will be complementing each other (like in our case).

As to Mathias' comment on the MEPs: Yes, there will be some considerable
turnover, but at the same time politicians are most likely to pay attention
to such a thing before election time. Sending it out just to the ones we
believe might get reelected would be - diplomatically speaking - bad
diplomacy. Can't we just resend it after the elections to just the newly
elected MEPs?

As to the length, indeed three pages might be a bit long, but if the
opening (i.e. the first page) is informative and interesting enough and the
other two pages are additional information, this could just work.

Dimi




2014-03-14 9:19 GMT+01:00 Mathias Schindler <mathias.schindler at wikimedia.de>
:

> Hi Stevie,
>
> I really like the initiative. There are a couple of things that came
> to my mind that might deserve some consideration.
>
> 1. You intend to send this to those 73 UK MEPs whose legislative turn
> will be over in about 2 months. There will be some considerable
> turnover. One option could be to adjust the recipient list to all
> candiates for an MEP seat or those with realistic chances of getting
> elected. After all, those candidates might be in a good mood to listen
> to suggestions right now.
>
> 2. The term "Public domain of publicly-funded works" might be
> perceived in two possible ways: Open Access to publicly funded works
> and Public Domain of Government works. Given the framework agreements
> such as Berne Convention and others, it will be unlikely to deny
> copyright protection just because funding came from a public source.
>
> 3. I really like the idea of illustrations. The picture of Big Ben and
> a crossed out European flagpole installation however might be
> interpreted slightly different than intended. Spending time and effort
> (and possibly even money) to get a layout that is appealing to the eye
> is definitely worth it.
>
> 4. Size. Three pages might exceed the attention span of your target
> audience.
>
> Mathias
>
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