Groep Groenboek/en/Consultation

See the website of the EC for the green paper mentioned here and Wikipedia for an article about the concept.

Through the press representatives for the Dutch language edition, Wikipedia has been approached to take part in a consultation in The Hague at the Dutch ministry of Justice. The Group Green paper asked Marco and Esther H to act as representatives for the working group. This is a summary of Marco's impressions of this meeting.

Please note that due to translation inaccuracies, there might be errors and misunderstandings in the text below. Please ask if unsure. If the report speaks of "I", Marco is meant, with "we" Esther and Marco.

Nature of the meeting

Besides civil organisations, the EU also asks for feedback from member countries. The ministry of Justice is preparing, together with the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the reaction from the Dutch cabinet. This consultation served to get an idea how stakeholders in The Netherlands are looking at the changes in copyright. It is not a formal procedure, since everybody can directly approach the European Union. The meeting was quite informal: more meant to explore, not so much to exchange hard opinions. I will therefore not mention any names of people or organisations, even though I have these reported myself of course, with the eye on future contacts.

Attendants

There were roughly 20 people attending; we understood that not all invited organisations showed up, but based on the available room I estimate 80% was there, generally with 1 or 2 people per organisation. Represented were: departments (Justice, Economics, Education Culture and Science), several organisations representing the stakes of copyright holders, scientists, libraries, employer organisations and an organisation opening literature to disabled people.

General impression

For Hague understanding it was a quite relaxed meeting. There were of course disagreements, but the discussion stayed cusual. It was clear that everybody was there to exchange information, and not to arrange things. Some discussions have a longer history, and several attendants met before. The consultation was lead swiftly; it was possible to go through all questions within the planned 3 hour, without bungling points or shutting up people.

Our Contribution

Wikimedia clearly brings in a new sound, both in content-terms and organisation terms. Our preparation clearly came off. We did not let ourselves "lock in" in Q.24, but made the importance of free information clear on many more points. The concept for answering the questions in the green paper lead in this. The opinions were of course not shared by everybody present, but were taken seriously and there were definitely supporters for the chosen approach. As well from science, libraries as from the employers, there was several times support. There is many more work to do on spreading information about open software and free information in general and Wikimedia in special. Especially the option to make derevative works - also commercially - as long as there is a 'share alike', requires more explanation. The ministries were glad to hear that we would send an own reaction to the EU. It seems like the attanding organisations would like to keep in touch with us in the future.

Self regulation

It is tough to use the 'fair use' principle as it exists in the USA. The Dutch government had plead for this at the creation of the current guidelines, but it appeared impossible to get. Not only the copyright organisations objected, but also other member countries, because it does not really fit in the continental legal system. It seems more chanceful to work out the current European rules in such a way that the practical differences with the USA are being resolved. See next point.

Harmonisation

An important motive of the green paper is the thought that differences in national legislature make the international free traffic of information and knowledge harder. This is a problem which explicitely shows up at Wikimedia. It was stated from several sides that the harmonisation should not mean that existing rights of users get lost. An interesting thought from the science, which connects with out opinions, is that the EU should a few limitations of the copyright (translaters note: here is meant limitations on copyright, which means you can use it even though there is copyright. An example is the right to cite.) uniformally for the whole EU. Besides that, the member countries should have the space to arrange some larger limitations, as long as these fit the three step test from the WIPO agreementOur addition was that with border-crossing projects, the rule should apply that what has been published in one member country legally, should not be acted upon in another. It was striking that this was supported by the employers.

Understandable copyright

Our view to not plea for additional rules, but preferrably stream line the current rules in such a way that simple users would be able to use them, was good received. The idea of simple procedures, wizards, which would give the user that follows these well meaning protection against legal violence, was received with much interest and sympathy.

Orphaned works

The idea for a simple procedure would also be a soltion direction for orphaned works. The copyright organisations are currently working on some kind of insurence for the case that a copyright holder comes up anyway afterwards. There should be a search for a possibility to release derived works in a similar way under a free license. There seemed to be interest with the copyright organisations and the government for further talks on this point.

Government information

The freeing of government information actually fell out of the reach of the green paper, because there is a seperate directive for this. It remains however good to use every opportunity to push that the government should play a avant garde role with offering free information.