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

[James Heald]

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).
>