[Wikimedia-l] Question: How do we define lobbying?

[Ilario Valdelli]

The problem is that in some European countries lobbying is in a gray zone
at the limit of "corruption" and it's not legally recognized.

What is important is to define clearly what people means with "lobbying"
and may be better to change the word.


On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 5:37 PM, Fae <faewik at gmail.com> wrote:

> In a workshop in the Milan conference, there was a break-out
> discussion led by Iolanda (WMIT) on lobbying. There is a lot of
> interest in finding ways of supporting change in copyright legislation
> and open knowledge access in as many countries as possible.
>
> One of the interesting features of the WMF agreement when providing
> funds under the FDC process is that this money should not be used for
> lobbying. During the coffee break I had a quick chat with Garfield
> (the WMF CFO) about a possible clarification. My understanding from
> that chat was that if there were valid reasons for lobbying in support
> of our cause, this should be a separate grant for traceability
> reasons, it is not intended to imply a blanket ban, but traceability
> is needed to satisfy the IRS. If a chapter has separate income from
> the WMF, then there is no concern as this is a matter for the
> individual chapter board and membership to worry about.
>
> I think this is a useful clarification, and this ought to be followed
> up as an action from our workshop.
>
> I would welcome any comments from the wider community on what sorts of
> lobbying as a movement that we definitely want to support, encourage
> and possibly provide funds for, and if we could come to a clearer
> definition of what lobbying is (such as political protest) and things
> we do as a community that is not quite lobbying, even though it may
> relate to government legislation (such as publishing a white paper
> with our summary of the benefits of changes in copyright law).
>
> Cheers,
> Fae
> --
> faewik at gmail.com http://j.mp/faewm
> Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/mfae
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list
> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
>



-- 
Ilario Valdelli
Wikimedia CH
Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre
Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera
Switzerland - 8008 Zürich
Tel: +41764821371
http://www.wikimedia.ch