[Advocacy Advisors] Civil Society Coalition opposes Copyright Term extension via TPP

Thu Jul 10 06:06:15 UTC 2014

Thanks Luis,

http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/07/09/wikimedia-statement-trans-pacific-partnership/

(and thanks to Wikimedia Foundation for this clear positioning)

Mathias

2014-07-10 0:52 GMT+02:00 Luis Villa <lvilla at wikimedia.org>:
> As the EFF blog post notes, and as I mentioned in my email over the weekend,
> we're signed on to the copyright note. We'll have a blog post up in the next
> 3-5 hours, probably.
>
> Luis
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 1:06 PM, Mathias Schindler
> <mathias.schindler at wikimedia.de> wrote:
>>
>> https://www.eff.org/files/2014/07/08/copyrightterm_tppletter_print-fnl.pdf
>>
>> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/dozens-organizations-and-businesses-protest-tpp-copyright-proposals
>>
>> We Join Dozens of Organizations and Businesses to Protest TPP
>> Copyright Proposals
>>
>> Today, EFF and its partners in the global Our Fair Deal coalition join
>> together with an even more diverse international network of creators,
>> innovators, start-ups, educators, libraries, archives and users to
>> release two new open letters to negotiators of the Trans-Pacific
>> Partnership (TPP).
>>
>> The TPP, although characterized as a free trade agreement, is actually
>> far broader in its intended scope. Amongst many changes to which it
>> could require the twelve negotiating countries to agree are a slate of
>> increased rights and privileges for copyright rights holders.
>>
>> With no official means of participating in the negotiations, the
>> global community of users and innovators who will be affected by these
>> proposed changes have been limited to expressing their concerns
>> through open letters to their political representatives and to the
>> officials negotiating the agreement.
>>
>> Each of the two open letters released today focuses on a separate
>> element of the heightened copyright regime that the TPP threatens to
>> introduce, and is endorsed by a separate groups of signatories
>> representing those most deeply impacted by the proposed changes in
>> each case.
>>
>> Intermediary Copyright Enforcement
>>
>> As the document below describes, countries around the Pacific rim are
>> being pressured to agree to proposed text for the TPP that would
>> require them to adopt a facsimile of the DMCAto regulate the take-down
>> of material hosted online, upon the mere allegation of copyright
>> infringement by a claimed rights-holder. Indeed, industry lobbyists
>> are pushing for an even stricter regime, dubbed "notice and staydown",
>> that would make it harder than ever before for users and innovators to
>> safely publish creative, transformational content online.
>>
>> Read the full letter here
>>
>> Amongst the 65 high-profile signatories who have endorsed this open
>> letter as of today areReddit, the Internet Archive, Stack Exchange and
>> Namecheap.
>>
>> Copyright Term Extension
>>
>> The rash 20 year extension of the term of copyright protection in the
>> United States in 1998 confounded economists, and frustrated
>> librarians, archivists and consumers, who were consequently starved of
>> new public domain works until 2019. Now the USA intends to compound
>> its error by extending it to all of the other TPP negotiating
>> countries—or at least, those that haven't already yielded to bilateral
>> pressure to extend their copyright terms. As the letter below
>> explains, this would be a senseless assault on the public domain and
>> on those libraries, authors, educators, users and others who depend
>> upon it.
>>
>> Read the full letter here
>>
>> The letter on copyright term extension has been endorsed by 35
>> organizations so far, including Creative Commons, the Wikimedia
>> Foundation, Public Knowledge and theInternational Federation of
>> Library Associations (IFLA).
>>
>> Express your support
>>
>> Although the letters have been presented to TPP negotiators today,
>> they will remain open for further signatories to express their
>> support, and may be presented again in future rounds. Interested
>> organizations can express their interest in endorsing the open letters
>> on copyright term extension and intermediary liability using the links
>> given here.
>>
>> For individuals who are not affiliated with a company or organization,
>> we encourage them instead to take action through the Our Fair Deal
>> coalition's petition (can we take it to 20,000 signatories by this
>> weekend?), and for those who are American citizens, through EFF's
>> action to oppose fast-track authority.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Mathias Schindler
>> Projektmanager
>> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
>> web: http://www.wikimedia.de
>> mail: mathias.schindler at wikimedia.de
>>
>> Ceterum censeo opera officiales esse liberandam -
>> http://urheberrecht.wikimedia.de/
>>
>> Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.
>> V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts
>> Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig
>> anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin,
>> Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Advocacy_Advisors at lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy_advisors
>
>
>
>
> --
> Luis Villa
> Deputy General Counsel
> Wikimedia Foundation
> 415.839.6885 ext. 6810
>
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-- 
Mathias Schindler
Projektmanager
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
web: http://www.wikimedia.de
mail: mathias.schindler at wikimedia.de

Ceterum censeo opera officiales esse liberandam -
http://urheberrecht.wikimedia.de/

Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.
V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts
Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig
anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin,
Steuernummer 27/681/51985.