[Advocacy Advisors] Implications of Oettinger (new EU Commissioner) getting Digital Agenda *and* Copyright ?

[James Heald]

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).











it now a priority to re-establish particular issues like FoP, and others 
where DG Connect