John,
The WMF has a large legal fund to support volunteers and projects like
Commons, which from my memory has only ever been paid out on a couple
of occasions (if anyone has a link to a list, I love to see it). At
least part of the 89,000 USD mentioned seems suitable for this
emergency funding, especially as Wikimedia Sverige cannot have been
expected to plan for these costs.
Has WMF legal been approached to give them a chance to say yes?
Thanks,
Fae
--
On 7 July 2017 at 16:41, John Andersson <john.andersson@wikimedia.se> wrote:
> Today we received some bad news in Sweden. The Swedish Patent and Market
> Court ruled against Wikimedia Sverige in a lawsuit filed by Visual Copyright
> Society in Sweden (BUS). The case concerns images of public art online, more
> specifically in the case of our website Offentligkonst.se, a service created
> by Wikimedia Sverige using images from Wikimedia Commons.
>
>
> The ruling means that Freedom of Panorama is eroded and the public space is
> diminished. It is a detrimental loss for our projects. Next we will talk to
> our lawyers and WMF legal team to see what our remaining legal options are.
> Our lawyers however believe that success is not very likely if we would
> decide to move forward.
>
>
> Intensive efforts to advocate for our elected officials to change the
> outdated and problematic clauses in Swedish copyright law will be initiated
> during the year.
>
>
> We have also started a crowdfunding campaign to cover some of the cost of
> the legal expenses and fines of about 750,000 SEK stated in the verdict
> (around 89,000 USD) and for future national and international lobbying
> efforts. Please consider making a donation at http://wikimedia.se/en/donera,
> even if it is a symbolic sum. Simply add “BUS” in the comment, and all the
> money will be used for these costs.
>
>
> Some useful links (in Swedish):
>
> The legal argumentation from the court:
> http://www.bildupphovsratt.se/sites/default/files/upload/ stockholms_tr_pmt_8448-14_dom_ 2017-07-06.pdf
>
> Our press release:
> https://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/wikimedia-sverige/ pressreleases/domslut-krymper- det-offentliga-rummet-i- sverige-2054679
>
> A timeline of what has happened:
> https://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Offentligkonst.se/Stämning
>
>
> Best,
>
>
> John
>
> - - - -
>
> John Andersson
>
> Executive Director
>
> Wikimedia Sverige
>
> Phone: +46(0)73-3965189
>
> Email: john.andersson@wikimedia.se
>
> Skype: johnandersson86
faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
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