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Today's Topics:
1. December 11: Public comments due on noncommercial use of
pre-1972 sound recordings (Sherwin Siy)
2. Commons app PG proposal, and v2.9 beta release (Josephine Lim)
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2018 10:26:42 -0500
From: Sherwin Siy <ssiy@wikimedia.org>
To: commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Commons-l] December 11: Public comments due on noncommercial
use of pre-1972 sound recordings
Message-ID:
<CAGwP_PZV1LUOT24JAENGSdZZ3Bquv+a-yPDHLbU32iMbRKbQRg@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Apologies for the cross post, but wanted to share this with the community:
Hi everyone,
I wanted to let you know that the Copyright Office is seeking comments on
rules that should make it easier for people to make noncommercial uses of
pre-1972 sound recordings that aren't being commercially exploited.
https://www.copyright.gov/rulemaking/pre1972-soundrecordings-noncommercial/
Comments were filed on November 26, and now there's an opportunity to
respond to those comments by December 11.
The Copyright Office is looking for public input on rules it must create
under the Music Modernization Act (MMA), which was signed into law last
month. (We called attention to the threats that earlier versions MMA posed
to the public domain; the passed compromise version contains provisions
that actually improve
<https://www.publicknowledge.org/news-blog/blogs/the-new-music-modernization-act-mostly-finally-gets-it-right>
the
status quo in the public domain in some areas)
One part of the MMA lets a user make a noncommercial use of a sound
recording made before 1972 if they make a "good faith, reasonable search"
of Copyright Office databases and music services that offer a comprehensive
set of sound recordings for sale or streaming. If the user doesn't find the
work on those lists after their reasonable search, they can give notice to
the Copyright Office and wait 90 days to see if a rightsholder comes
forward and objects. If not, they can use the work.
The Copyright Office is writing the rules that define what a "good faith,
reasonable search" is, and it has more specific questions in its initial
notice. (here:
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-10-16/pdf/2018-22516.pdf) Entities
ranging from music industry groups to the Internet Archive have filed
initial comments; (available here:
https://www.regulations.gov/docketBrowser?rpp=25&so=DESC&sb=commentDueDate&po=0&dct=PS&D=COLC-2018-0008)
responses to those are due on December 11.
The Wikimedia Foundation may file some short reply comments replying to
some key points made in other submissions, or possibly join other
organizations' comments, depending upon feedback.
I'm posting this to the list because I thought it might be valuable for the
Copyright Office to hear the perspective of community members who upload
pre-1972 sound recordings to Wikimedia Commons, or make other
non-commercial uses of the works. Even if you're not likely to use this
particular provision for Wikimedia Commons yourself (given the
restrictions), it could be useful for them to understand what searching for
sources and availability looks like to a typical user, and not necessarily
someone in the music industry.
You can make those perspectives known by filing comments at regulations.gov.
Instructions on how to file in this proceeding from the Copyright Office
are here:
https://www.copyright.gov/rulemaking/pre1972-soundrecordings-noncommercial/comment-submission/
Happy to answer any questions people might have.
Thanks,
Sherwin
--
Sherwin Siy
Senior Public Policy Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2018 03:17:38 +1000
From: Josephine Lim <josephinelim86@gmail.com>
To: wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org, commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
mobile-l <mobile-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: [Commons-l] Commons app PG proposal, and v2.9 beta release
Message-ID:
<CANezgvnUAXNRvKuV2jjv+GrANUjq8_U2cZXu5Rf0wa=bfnJyPg@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Hi folks,
Hope you've all been well! :) We (the Commons app team) are applying for a
Project Grant[1] to fund the development of v3.0 of the Commons Android
app[2]. At the moment, we're approaching completion of our 2nd Individual
Engagement Grant, having implemented several major new features, e.g. a
revamped map of "nearby places that need photos" with direct uploads and
Wikidata integration, user talk notifications, browsing of other Commons
pictures with focus on featured images, and 2FA logins. We currently have
4000+ active installs, and 15,000+ distinct images uploaded via our app
have been used in Wikimedia articles. In the last 6 months alone, 21,241
files were uploaded via our app, and only 1738 (8.2%) of those files
required deletion. We are also proud to report that we have a vibrant,
diverse community of volunteers on our GitHub repository[3], and that we
have increased our global user coverage since our first grant.
It has been a rocky road this year, however. One of the major issues we
faced was that a large portion of our codebase is based on
sparsely-documented legacy code from the very first incarnation of the app
5 years ago (a long time in the Android development world), leading to
unpredictable behavior and bugs. We eventually found ourselves in a
position where new features built on top of legacy code were causing other
features to not work correctly, and even fixes to those problems sometimes
had side effects that caused other problems. (My sincerest apologies to
users for the inconveniences that they were caused!)
In view of that, our Project Grant proposal focuses on these areas:
- Increasing app stability and code quality: We plan to overhaul our legacy
backend to adhere to modern best practices, reduce complexity and
dependencies in our codebase, and introduce test-driven development for the
first time.
- Targeted acquisition of photos for places that need them: The "Nearby
places that need photos" feature has come a long way, but there is still
plenty of room for improvement. We plan to introduce new quality-of-life
features (e.g. by implementing filters and bookmarks) and fix a few
outstanding bugs to make it more user-friendly and convenient to use. We
will also complete the final link in the chain of collecting photos for
Wikipedia articles that lack them by prompting users to add their
recently-uploaded photo to the relevant Wikipedia article.
- Increasing user acquisition in the Global South: We plan to implement a
"limited connectivity" mode, allow pausing and resuming of uploads, and put
more time and effort into outreach and socializing the app, especially to
underrepresented communities.
- We also wish to continue to assist the Commons community to reduce
vandalism and improve usability of images uploaded. This will be done by
implementing selfie detection, and a "to-do" system that reminds users if
an image lacks a description/categories.
Your feedback is important to us! Please do take a look at our proposal[1],
and feel free to let us know what you think on the Discussion page, and/or
endorse the proposal if you see fit. If you would like to be part of the
project, new volunteers and additions to our diverse team are always
welcome - please visit our GitHub repository[3] and say "Hi". :)
Also, we have just released v2.9 for beta testing on the Play Store! \o/
v2.9 features a new main screen UI, a new upload UI with multiple uploads
enabled, and major bugfixes for image dates and the Nearby map default zoom
level. More information and screenshots can be found on our blog[4]. If you
would like to help test the new release, you can sign up for beta testing
here[5].
Finally, we want to thank everyone who has cheered us on and supported us
throughout the years. As a community-maintained app, we wouldn't be here
without you.
Best regards,
Josephine (User:Misaochan), Commons app project maintainer
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Commons_app/Commons_Android_app_v3
[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.free.nrw.commons
[3] https://github.com/commons-app/apps-android-commons
[4] https://cookiesandcodeblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/version-2-9-beta/
[5] https://play.google.com/apps/testing/fr.free.nrw.commons
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