Only you can #fixcopyright but you need to start acting now!

The European Parliament (EP) is discussing the European Commission (EC) proposal for a new European directive on copyright, that will endanger education and scientific research, freedom of expression and freedom of information.

The Members of European Parliament (MEP) submitted amendments to the EC’s proposal that are now being discussed and voted in EP’s committees according with the following timetable, taken from Julia Reda’s Website:

June 29, 2017	LIBE	Vote on opinion
July 11, 2017?	ITRE	Vote on opinion
July 11, 2017	CULT	Vote on opinion
July 12 or 13, 2017	JURI	Debate of report amendments
September 7, 2017	JURI	Debate of compromise amendments
October 9 or 10, 2017	JURI	Vote on report
Winter 2017?	EU Parliament Plenary	Vote on report

We all need to contact our representatives in the European Parliament (MEPs) and tell them:

• to support and vote favourably on those amendments that widen the scope of the TDM exception. Everyone that has legal access to texts and data should be allowed to mine those texts and data. The right to read is the right to mine. EC wants to allow only research centres to do TDM, and only for non commercial purposes, prohibiting startups, public entities, cultural heritage institutions, journalists and citizens to do it;

• to support and vote favourably on those amendments related with technological measures. Technological measures (DRM) kill your right to exercise copyright exceptions in education, scientific research, cultural heritage, etc. We need to change this and now there’s an opportunity: if those amendments are approved, technological measures will never stop citizens from exercising the exceptions again in Europe. The best part is those amendments do not change the rightholder’s rights, they will have exactly the same rights, they can still use technological measures (DRM) in their works and DRM will still be protected by law;

• to support and vote favourably on those amendments that extend the copyright exception for education and reject a licensing system and levies, that educational entities cannot afford;

• to support and vote favourably on those amendments that reject article 11º (publishers’ rights). EC wants to create a new 20 years related right to be given to news’ publishers, endangering the sharing of links with snippets or a title to a new’s article. A similar law didn’t work in Germany and was disastrous in Spain. It is also an abject limitation on freedom of expression and access to information and independent academics unanimously oppose to extra copyright for news sites;

• to support and vote favourably on those amendments that reject article 13º (upload filters). If EC’s proposal is approved, Internet platforms hosting user-uploaded content must monitor those uploads. This will apply to large platforms, like YouTube, but also to other platforms like Universities’ scientific research repositories. The Court of Justice of the European Union already ruled that mandatory filtering was not acceptable and an independent study shows this article is incompatible with European law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. Also, this monitoring would be done through automatic filters that are blind to copyright exceptions.

• to support and vote favourably on those amendments that create a new exception for user generated content;

• to support and vote favourably on those amendments that harmonise the panorama exception.

Last Friday, the European People’s Party (EPP), the party with more MEPs (and votes) in the European Parliament, adopted a position on EC proposal that, if approved, will take Europe to the dark ages.

The @EPPGroup adopted a position on #Copyright. If new rapporteur @AxelVossMdEP follows it, he’d have to ignore all academic evidence. pic.twitter.com/CVOCT3u9Cd

— Julia Reda (@Senficon) July 6, 2017

We all need to contact our representative MEPs!

The contacts of MEPs can be found in the EP’s page. The most important vote is JURI Committee vote, so if you don’t have time to contact all your representatives, you should prioritise JURI’s. Check your country below to see how to contact your representatives:

If you are from Czech Republic, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Pavel SVOBODA
Email: pavel.svoboda [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45303

Jiří MAŠTÁLKA
Email: jiri.mastalka [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45905

If you are from Poland, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Lidia Joanna GERINGER de OEDENBERG
Email: lidiajoanna.geringerdeoedenberg [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45809

Tadeusz ZWIEFKA
Email: tadeusz.zwiefka [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45258

Kosma ZŁOTOWSKI
Email: kosma.zlotowski [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45775

Stanisław ŻÓŁTEK
Email: stanislawjozef.zoltek [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: ++32(0)2 28 45603

If you are from France, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Jean-Marie CAVADA
Email: jean-marie.cavada [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45367

Joëlle BERGERON
Email: joelle.bergeron [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45295

Marie-Christine BOUTONNET
Email: marie-christine.boutonnet [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45602

Gilles LEBRETON
Email: gilles.lebreton [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45817

Pascal DURAND
Email: pascal.durand [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45161

Constance LE GRIP
Email: constance.legrip [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45120

Virginie ROZIÈRE
Email: virginie.roziere [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45408

If you are from Italy, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Laura FERRARA
Email: laura.ferrara [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45410

Enrico GASBARRA
Email: enrico.gasbarra [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45410

Isabella ADINOLFI
Email: isabella.adinolfi [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45714

Mario BORGHEZIO
Email: mario.borghezio [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45704

Sergio Gaetano COFFERATI
Email: sergio.cofferati [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45513

Stefano MAULLU
Email: stefano.maullu [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45219

If you are from Luxembourg, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Mady DELVAUX
Email: smady.delvaux-stehres [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45136

If you are from Sweden, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Max ANDERSSON
Email: max.andersson [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45457

Jytte GUTELAND
Email: jytte.guteland [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45694

If you are from Greece, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Kostas CHRYSOGONOS
Email: kostas.chrysogonos [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45405

If you are from Ireland, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Brian CROWLEY
Email: briancrowleymep [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45751

If you are from Spain, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Rosa ESTARÀS FERRAGUT
Email: rosa.estaras [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45163

Luis de GRANDES PASCUAL
Email: luis.degrandespascual [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45512

If you are from United Kingdom, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Mary HONEYBALL
Email: mary.honeyball [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45209

Sajjad KARIM
Email: sajjad.karim [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45640

Jane COLLINS
Email: jane.collins [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45104

If you are from Germany, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Sylvia-Yvonne KAUFMANN
Email: sylvia-yvonne.kaufmann [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45788

Julia REDA
Email: julia.reda [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45732

Axel VOSS
Email: axel.voss [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45302

Evelyne GEBHARDT
Email: evelyne.gebhardt [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45466

Angelika NIEBLER
Email: angelika.niebler [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32 (0) 2 28 45390

Rainer WIELAND
Email: rainer.wieland [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 47545

Tiemo WÖLKEN
Email: tiemo.woelken [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45431

If you are from Portugal, you should contact (change [at] for @):

António MARINHO E PINTO
Email: antonio.marinhoepinto [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45403

If you are from Bulgaria, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Emil RADEV
Email: aemil.radev [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45189

Angel DZHAMBAZKI
Email: aangel.dzhambazki [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45697

If you are from Austria, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Evelyn REGNER
Email: evelyn.regner [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45476

If you are from Hungary, you should contact (change [at] for @):

József SZÁJER
Email: jozsef.szajer [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45871

If you are from Romania, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Daniel BUDA
Email: daniel.buda [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45110

If you are from Lithuania, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Antanas GUOGA
Email: antanas.guoga [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45522

Viktor USPASKICH
Email: viktor.uspaskich [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45339

If you are from Finland, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Heidi HAUTALA
Email: heidi.hautala [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45518

If you are from Denmark, you should contact (change [at] for @):

Jens ROHDE
Email: jens.rohde [at] europarl.europa.eu
Brussels Office Phone: +32(0)2 28 45569

European Parliament by Francisco Antunes Creative Commons BY

Vamos endireitar o direito de autor na Educação, num minuto :-) #FixCopyright

Às vezes, há acções que podemos fazer, que levam pouco tempo, mas que podem ter um grande impacto. É o caso da petição https://rightcopyright.eu/?lang=pt-pt . Leva 1 minuto a assinar!

Como já devem saber, a Comissão Europeia lançou uma proposta para uma nova directiva sobre direito de autor. No que respeita ao ensino, a excepção que temos ainda é muito restritiva, masa proposta contém alterações significativas para pior:

1. Diferencia a utilização digital da utilização analógica, introduzindo ainda mais complexidade à lei e indo contra a realidade, onde cada vez mais é quase impossível distinguir o uso digital do uso analógico;
2. Restringe o uso da excepção às premissas de um estabelecimento de ensino, esquecendo todos os lugares, que não são estabelecimentos de ensino, mas onde este é prestado (bibliotecas, museus, espaços de conferências, entre outros);
3. Restringe o uso da excepção a redes electrónicas a que só alunos e professores de um estabelecimento de ensino podem aceder, impedindo escolas, universidades e outras instituições de ensino de fazer uso de redes públicas e alargadas, que lhes podiam permitir aumentar a sua rede de contactos, estabelecer parcerias colaborativas e, muito provavelmente, impedindo materiais em acesso aberto de beneficiarem da excepção;
4. Permite e incentiva os Estados-Membros a optarem por um sistema de licenças, em que a excepção deixa de existir e as instituições educativas passam a ser obrigadas a negociar com as entidades de gestão colectiva as utilizações que precisem de fazer, aumentando os custos para as instituições;
5. Permite aos Estados-Membros criar uma taxa à semelhança da taxa da cópia privada.

Na sequência desta proposta, a Communia criou uma petição com propostas para melhorar o direito de autor na educação. A minha recomendação é que assinem a petição e espalhem pelos vossos contactos. Leva um minuto e pode ter um grande impacto.

Deixo-vos alguns exemplos do que se pode fazer ou não com a excepção que existe hoje:

Em Portugal, um professor não pode mostrar um vídeo que esteja online numa aula. A excepção para fins de ensino cobre apenas a utilização de parte da obra. 

Em Portugal, um professor de música não pode pedir aos alunos para tocarem uma peça musical. A excepção para fins de ensino cobre apenas a utilização de parte da obra. 

Em Portugal, se um professor precisar de fazer uma compilação, só o poderá fazer se pagar.

E se um museu quiser digitalizar páginas de um livro de arte para mostrar aos alunos? É legal? Não se sabe!

 

 

 

 

My comment on Sir @timberners_lee endorsement to #EME #DRM #FixCopyright

I finally got time to write my opinion on the disappointing news that Sir Tim Berners-Lee was endorsing EME. The comment is still in moderation, so I thought I post it also here.

W3C is planing to vote EME, tomorrow, 13 April, which, if approved, will flood the Web with DRMed content. The Open Rights Group created an easy way for all of us to write both to Sir Tim Berners-Lee and W3C. Go there and say no to DRM.

My comment:

Dear Sir Tim Berners-Lee,

After reading and thinking for quite some time about this text of yours, I decided to comment here to tell you not only that I would like to ask you to reconsider your position, but also to be sure that if you don’t, at least you know exactly the context where you’re deciding this.

The reason why I think there’s a possibility that you don’t know exactly the context of this, is that in this article you talk about DRM as if it was a bother, which it is, but that’s not the real problem with the DRM.
The problem with DRM is that it prevents users from exercising citizens’ fundamental rights/human rights.
So when you’re making it easier for some companies to use DRM on the Web, you’re actually helping these companies to stop citizens from exercising their fundamental rights/human rights.
To understand this, we need to understand what copyright is, so bear with me.

*The Context*
Copyright is an exclusive right. This means that only the author can use his work and only the author can authorise others to use his work. This is the right we give to authors, by default.
Lawmakers also decided they couldn’t maintain copyright only like this, because in that case copyright would kill fundamental rights/human rights of all the other citizens.
Example: Imagine you wanted to use an excerpt of a copyrighted work to give your opinion, or to discuss it, or to criticise it, or to correct an information. You would have to ask rightholders for permission. And they could tell you that if you wanted use an excerpt of their work to say it was wrong, for example, they wouldn’t give you their permission. They could deny their permission, whatever the case. So, you couldn’t exercise your right to freedom of expression.

So, to guarantee all the citizens’ fundamental rights/human rights, lawmakers decided to create exceptions to copyright:
a) They created an exception to copyright that allows you to use excerpts of a work to give your opinion, to make an argument, to correct something, to criticise, to make a parody, etc. in order to guarantee your fundamental/human right to freedom of expression;
b) They created an exception to copyright that allows you to use excerpts of a work to teach, learn and do scientific research in order to guarantee your fundamental/human right to education;
c) They created an exception for media in order to guarantee the fundamental right to freedom of information;
d) They created an exception for libraries and other heritage institutions, that otherwise couldn’t exist, to guarantee your fundamental right to access your own heritage and culture;
e) They also created other exceptions, you can read about them in the European Directive of Copyright, article 5 (in your case this is Fair Use, it’s not exactly the same thing, but it has same purpose).

*What has DRM to do with this?*
When lawmakers were convinced to give legal protection to DRM, they did it in a “total” way, meaning that:
1) if you circumvent the DRM to do file-sharing, which is illegal, the circumvention of DRM is also illegal;
2) if you circumvent the DRM to do one of the copyright exceptions (to use an excerpt to teach or criticise, for example), which are legal, the circumvention of DRM is still illegal.

The problem with the second situation is that, in the case of DRMed digital works there’s no way you can do any of the copyright exceptions without breaking the DRM. And you can’t break DRM: you can go to prison.
Doesn’t matter if you bought the book or the film, doesn’t matter if you want to make a legal use. If you break DRM, even in these legal cases, you can go to prison. That’s what the law says.

We have these rights, they are fundamental rights/human rights, but if the work has DRM we can’t exercise those rights.

*What are you and W3C really doing?*
So, when you endorse EME, you’re making it easier for those companies to flood the Web with DRM, which actually means you’re helping those companies to prevent citizens from exercising their fundamental rights/human rights.

You argue that you can’t change the law. This is actually an argument to not endorse EME.
You’re doing something that you know it stops citizens from exercising their fundamental rights. Then you tell us you can’t change this and you’re doing it anyway. Well, if you can’t change the law, you can’t guarantee citizens’ human rights, so you should not make an action that helps to kill these rights.

*What can you do?*
You could solve this in a very simple way. You only have to tell those W3C members that want to push EME forward that right now the law does not guarantee citizens’ fundamental rights (AKA Copyright Exceptions) when works have DRM, so W3C should put EME on hold.
You can even tell them that if and when the law changes to guarantee citizens’ fundamental rights, then W3C can work on EME again.

And they have an advantage over you, because you can’t change the law, but they can. I was going through the W3C Members’ list and found that W3C has as members the most powerful associations and companies, both from rightholders side and companies that use/make DRM side.
You know, the ones that convinced politicians to make this DRM law and the ones that can easily convince politicians to correct the law.

EME has nothing to do with technology, it’s about fundamental/human rights of real people, with real lives, in a real world.
If you feel you owe us an explanation, this is the one we need: why are you helping associations and companies to stop all of us from exercising our fundamental rights?

Problema com #DRM resolvido em PT

No More Locks by Paula Simões Creative Commons Attribution

A iniciativa legislativa do Bloco de Esquerda, que visa garantir o exercício dos direitos dos utilizadores, consagrados no Código do Direito de Autor e dos Direitos Conexos (CDADC), foi aprovada no Parlamento na passada sexta-feira.

A proposta de lei permite que, finalmente, os cidadãos portugueses possam exercer as utilizações livres, também conhecidas por excepções ao direito de autor e listadas no artigo 75º e seguintes do CDADC, mesmo nos casos em que as obras tenham DRM.

Desde 2004, que se os cidadãos quisessem beneficiar de uma excepção, como por exemplo, fazer uma utilização de uma obra para fins de ensino ou de investigação científica; fazer uma utilização para dar uma opinião, criticar ou discutir uma obra; fazer uma cópia privada de uma obra, entre outras utilizações livres, e essa obra tivesse DRM, os cidadãos deixavam de poder fazer essas utilizações, uma vez que a lei proibia a neutralização do DRM, mesmo que o cidadão quisesse realizar uma acção legal.

A proposta do Bloco, agora aprovada, resolve este problema, permitindo que os cidadãos possam exercer as acções descritas na lei como utilizações livres, mesmo que as obras tenham DRM.

Mas a iniciativa do Bloco vai mais longe: ao impedir a colocação de DRM nas obras em domínio público (obras que nunca tiveram ou já não têm direitos de autor patrimoniais), mostra uma defesa e proteção do nosso património cultural, que é de saudar e parabenizar.

Por último, a proposta segue ainda o princípio de que aquilo que é financiado com dinheiro público, e portanto financiado pelos cidadãos, não deve ter obstáculos ao seu acesso pelos cidadãos. Neste contexto, a iniciativa impede ainda a colocação de DRM em obras editadas por entidades públicas ou financiadas com dinheiro público.

A iniciativa contou ainda com o trabalho do Partido Socialista, em sede de Comissão, e o apoio do Partido Comunista Português, do Partido Ecologista Os Verdes e o Partido Pessoas Animais e Natureza, permitindo assim a concordância destes grupos parlamentares no sentido de aprovarem a iniciativa.

As utilizações livres, ou excepções, foram criadas para garantir os direitos fundamentais dos cidadãos. BE, PS, PCP, Verdes e PAN uniram-se para defenderem os direitos dos cidadãos e, por isso, estão de parabéns.

A notícia tem sido aplaudida por inúmeros cidadãos em todo o mundo, que olham para Portugal como um país que defende os cidadãos, a democracia e uma sociedade mais humana.

EU copyright reform #Timetable #FixCopyright

Julia Reda, MEP, published a timetable of the process of EU copyright reform, that allows us to follow the process.

The Association for Free Education created a calendar based on that timetable, that you can download and import to your own calendar here or that you can see on the Web here

Calendar by Dafne Cholet Creative Commons BY

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