Digital rights organisations in Mexico are sounding the alarm after the Senate approved changes to the copyright law that would censor information online. The measures would allow for the preemptive removal of content without having to prove that a copyright infringement has actually taken place.
Yesterday the Senate approved the modifications to the Federal Copyright Law, with 63 votes in favor, 11 against, and 23 abstentions. The Senate voted with little internal discussion, and without the knowledge of or input from civil society organisations or the public.
Essentially, the changes to the law would permit courts—without holding a trial—to preemptively remove online content which is suspected to be an infringement of copyright, or even to seize equipment such as servers and routers that facilitate access to allegedly-infringing material.
This practice is unjustified and harmful to freedom of expression. Luis Fernando García from R3D noted that the approved changes “clearly constitute a measure of prior censorship, in violation of article seven of the Mexican Constitution.” In addition, the law seemingly contravenes Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights (ratified by Mexico), which establishes that freedom of expression “shall not be subject to prior censorship” except for in specific circumstances—which does not include enforcement of copyright.
This is a very troubling development, with potentially massive negative implications to both access to information and due process of law. We’ll continue to work with our partners in Mexico to monitor and act on this issue.
Organizaciones de la sociedad civil en México han hecho sonar las alarmas después de que el Senado aprobara cambios a la ley de derecho de autor que podría permitir la censura en línea. Estas medidas permitirían la remoción preventiva de contenido sin tener que comprobar que ha ocurrido una violación al derecho de autor.
El día de ayer, el Senado aprobó las modificaciones a la Ley Federal del Derecho de Autor con 63 votos a favor, 11 en contra y 23 abstenciones. El Senado votó con muy poco debate de por medio y sin el conocimiento o la participación de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil o del público.
En esencia, estos cambios permitirían a las cortes, sin juicio, eliminar de forma preventiva contenido que, se sospeche, estaría violando el derecho de autor. Incluso permitiría el decomiso de equipo de cómputo como servidores y ruteadores que hayan sido utilizados en la supuesta infracción.
Esta forma de actuar no tiene justificación y es dañina para la libertad de expresión. Luis Fernando García, de la organización R3D comentó que los cambios aprobados “constituyen claramente una medida de censura previa, en violación al artículo séptimo de la Constitución Mexicana”. Así mismo, la ley parece contravenir el Artículo 13 de la Convención Americana de Derechos Humanos (ratificada por México) la cual establece que la libertad de expresión “no deberá estar sujeta a censura previa” a excepción de en ciertas circunstancias dentro de las cuales no se encuentran las infracciones al derecho de autor.
Este es un evento muy desafortunado que tiene implicaciones muy negativas hacia el acceso a la información y al debido proceso. Continuaremos trabajando con nuestros colaboradores mexicanos para monitorear el progreso de esta situación.
Creative Commons and 55 organisations sent a letter to the head of the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee, MEP Axel Voss, urging him to remove the harmful and counterproductive press publishers right from the EU copyright reform docket.
Last month, we wrote about the proposal floated by Voss that would take the already-harmful press publishers right and make it even worse. This new right, laid out in Article 11 of the draft Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, would introduce an additional right for news websites to extract fees from news aggregators for incorporating short snippets of—or even linking to—their content. Voss’ proposed changes assert that press publishers will receive—whether they like it or not—an “inalienable right to obtain an [sic] fair and proportionate remuneration for such uses.” This means that publishers will be required to demand payment from news aggregators. Such an inalienable right directly conflicts with publishers who wish to share freely and openly using Creative Commons licenses. Forcing publishers who use CC to accept additional unwaivable rights to receive payment violates the letter and spirit of Creative Commons licensing and denies publishers the freedom to conduct business and share content as they wish.
In addition, Voss proposed to expand the scope of beneficiaries of Article 11 to cover not only press publishers, but also news agencies. This could have the effect of inappropriately granting copyright-like protection to facts and compilations of basic information.
The coalition letter reinforces the pervasive danger to access to information, the right to link, and the development of a free and pluralist press.
Voss’ proposal must be rejected, and Article 11 should be deleted. An additional right for press publishers won’t support quality journalism or grow the digital single market. Instead, it will negatively affect access to information and the ability for publishers to share using the platforms, technologies, and terms beneficial to them.
In December Diego Gómez was finally cleared of the criminal charges levied against him for sharing an academic research paper on the internet. The Tribunal de Bogotá—the Colombian appellate court—affirmed the lower court’s acquittal.
Gómez is a scientist from Colombia who had been criminally prosecuted for the last three years for sharing an academic paper online. When Diego was a student in conservation biology, he had poor access to many of the resources and databases that would help him conduct his research. He found and shared an academic paper so that others could read and learn from it. Gómez didn’t get permission to reshare the article, and subsequently was prosecuted for copyright infringement. He faced up to eight years in prison, along with a substantial monetary fine.
A global campaign—Compartir no es Delito (Sharing is not a Crime)—has been supporting Diego since 2014 – The campaign is now complete. But it’s important to recognize the incredible efforts of everyone involved. First, thank you to Diego for his courage and perseverance during the legal case against him. He continued to stand and fight under immense pressure, including financial uncertainty and the possibility that he would have to serve a prison sentence. Second, thank you to the incredible civil society organisations that immediately jumped into action to organise and collaborate in defense of Diego, and to show their support for open access to research. These efforts were led by the Colombian digital rights organisation Fundación Karisma, with support from groups including Derechos Digitales, Electronic Frontier Foundation, SPARC, Creative Commons, and many others. Finally, thank you to the journalists, op-ed writers, crowdfunding supporters, and hundreds of individuals around the world who shared Diego’s story with friends, family, and the world through writing and social media.
Diego’s case is over, but surely it won’t be the last time overzealous rights holders try to leverage copyright to suppress the sharing of scientific research meant to be shared with the public for the good of everyone. As we’ve said again and again, instead of prosecuting students for sharing knowledge, governments and communities should be encouraging the free exchange of scientific information by reinforcing positive norms around scholarship and collaboration, promoting open access to research, and eliminating out of control copyright penalties that serve no reasonable public interest purpose. Furthermore, we should encourage our governments to boost national legislation that promotes the release of public funded research results as open access.
Thank you to Diego, and everyone who has supported this campaign and movement. You can read more about Diego’s case here, and learn about open access here.
We are happy to announce the official translation of the Creative Commons 4.0 license suite into Russian. Congratulations to the CC Russia team for the great job! The translation team consisted of Mr. Yuri Hohlov – Public Head; Mr. Alexander Evtyushkin – Expert; Ms. Louisa Rizmanova – CC Russia Project Manager; Mr Alexander Generalov – translator – from IIS; Mr. Michael Yakushev – Legal Head; Ms. Svetlana Vorozhbit; Mrs. Elena Voinikanis; Ms. Natalia Sorokina; Mr. Maksym Naumko; Mr. Vitaly Kalyatin. Special thanks to Mrs. Tatiana Ershova and Mr. Nikolay Dmitrik for reviewing the final draft.
The translation of 4.0 was performed after article 1286.1 of the Russian Civil Code came into effect, which created the definition of the open license under Russian law. Prior to that, the legal regime analogical to Creative Commons had never been defined. This new article benefited Creative Commons users, as well as the free software community. As copyleft licenses, such as GNU GPL, have a long history of translation into the Russian language, there was an effort in the translation process to put the 4.0 legal instruments into the context of the article 1286.1 of the Russian Civil Code and translation of the licenses used for free software.
Surprisingly, there were few issues arising from the lack of the Russian terminology. This new translation reflects the fact of maximum convergence between the Russian legislation on intellectual property and the contemporary documents in the copyright sphere.
The inaugural Bassel Khartabil Free Culture Fellowship was awarded today to Majd Al-shihabi, a Palestinian-Syrian engineer and urban planning graduate based in Beirut, Lebanon. The Fellowship provides operational costs and a stipend of $50,000USD to carry out work honoring the legacy of Syrian activist Bassel Khartabil. The announcement was made at the 2018 Creative Commons Global Summit by Creative Commons CEO Ryan Merkley and filmmaker Dana Trometer. In tandem with the launch of the Fellowship, Creative Commons announced the first three recipients of the Bassel Khartabil Memorial Fund: Egypt-based The Mosireen Collective, and Lebanon-based Sharq.org and ASI-REM/ADEF Lebanon.
The Fellowship will support Majd’s efforts in building a unified platform for Syrian and Palestinian oral history archives, as well as the digitizing and release of previously forgotten 1940s era public domain maps of Palestine. “Even though I never met Bassel, I am realizing that the projects and the communities that I have been involved in are influenced by his spirit of openness and collaboration,” says Fellow Majd Al-shihabi. “I hope that through my projects, I will propagate those visions for re-building our Palestinian and Syrian societies towards a fair and free future.”
“It has been extraordinary to see the range of projects and initiatives proposed for this first Fellowship honoring Bassel’s work,” offered Bassel’s widow, Syrian human rights lawyer Noura Ghazi. “Bassel was first and foremost a proud member and leader within Syria’s Creative Commons, open source and free culture communities. I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to everyone at Creative Commons for all the love and support they gave us throughout the hard years Bassel spent in a Syrian prison. I would like to congratulate Majd and the Memorial Fund recipients and I know Bassel would have been a great colleague and supporter of all involved. I wish you good luck with the summit and I regret not being able to be there with you.”
The Bassel Khartabil Free Culture Fellowship was made possible by the support and funding from organizational partners Creative Commons, Wikimedia Foundation, Mozilla, Fabricatorz Foundation, #FREEBASSEL, #NEWPALMYRA, Jimmy Wales Foundation, SMEX, and YallaStartup.
The Bassel Khartabil Memorial Fund is generously supported by Private Internet Access, the family of Bassel Khartabil, and individual donors.
Inaugural Fellowship to focus on a vibrant platform for sharing oral histories and release of public domain maps of Palestine
Majd Al-shihabi’s work as the Bassel Khartabil Free Culture Fellow will focus on collaboration with archivists and oral historians in Lebanon and beyond to increase the accessibility and openness of Syrian and Palestinian oral history collections online. In tandem, Majd will work with local GIS and mapping communities in Lebanon to digitize and publish recently discovered print maps of Palestine from the pre-1940s, British Mandate era. These archival maps will help identify the location of long-since destroyed villages, landmarks, and communities in an open and freely-redistributable web platform, ensuring the perseverance of Palestinian history and culture.
Three recipients of Bassel Khartabil Memorial Fund
The Fellowship was presented alongside three inaugural Bassel Khartabil Memorial Fund grants, awarded to Egypt-based The Mosireen Collective, and Beirut-based organizations Sharq and ASI-REM/ADEF Lebanon (Arab Studies Institute-Research and Education Methodologies / Arab Digital Expressions Foundation). Grants are valued at up to $10,000USD and targeted at work or projects that will unfold through May 2019.
The Mosireen Collective is a volunteer media group born out of the rapid expansion of citizen journalism and cultural activism during the Egyptian revolution of 2011. Mosireen worked to film, document, edit and upload video works related to the revolution, and to train and organize video activists, as well as establish a physical space for meetings and screenings. Following the military coup of 2013, the Collective migrated its work entirely to the web and focused on the creation of 858.ma, a predominantly open source collection of 858 hours of filmed, indexed, and geo-located archival footage from within the Egyptian revolution.
With support from the Memorial Fund, the Collective will expand and grow the online collection, and work to establish it as a “living,” growing, and responsive collection of video works. The Collective plans to launch new workshops and training for video activists, bring together other collections and collectors of video, engage new volunteers to archive and annotate works, and train them in the use of open-source video platform pan.do/ra to help them upload their own footage.
Sharq’s mission is to strengthen the ability of Arab citizens to hear and be heard, and to engage in honest and productive interactions. Sharq carries out this work primarily through the production of oral history collections that capture the stories and experiences of individuals across the Arab world. Sharq’s Managing Director, Reem Maghribi, is a journalist and communications professional who has focused Sharq’s project efforts around empowering citizens to gain skills for expression and debate, through publishing, training and cultural initiatives.
To date, Sharq has produced varied collections of hundreds of video and audio recorded oral histories from across the Arab region, all under CC license. Recent collections center on culture and society in Syria prior to 2011, human rights abuses during the Gaddafi era in Libya, and employment for Palestinians in Lebanon. The Arab World Voices Library will see Sharq’s wider collection of online, oral histories combined into a single, virtual library destination. Through workshops and online training, visitors from around the world will be invited to explore and help curate and grow the library for future generations.
The Arab Digital Expression Foundation builds spaces and fosters environments focused on digital expression, learning, skills development, and empowerment of Arab-speaking teenagers and youth to strengthen their engagement with society. ADEF promotes the creative use of media, art, and technology – with a strong focus on the promotion of open source and free culture tools and outputs – to increase the production and dissemination of Arabic knowledge and culture.
ADEF Lebanon, CC BY
ADEF Lebanon has been conducting the Youth Media Activists Camp since 2014. The 10-day camps are an annual gathering place for exchange of knowledge and skills for up to 50 young participants representing collectives, student and social activists, media groups, technologists, and aspiring writers and journalists. Participants take an active role in designing and planning the camps, with an emphasis on developing skills and abilities central to collaboration, expression, and community-building. This year’s camps, partially supported by the Memorial Fund, will continue to mobilize and catalyze a new community of Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian social and political activists.
2018 CC Global Summit
The Memorial Fund and Fellowship recipients were announced at the 2018 Creative Commons Global Summit, the annual gathering of technologists, legal experts, academics, activists, and community members who work to promote the power of open worldwide. Held in Toronto, Ontario, the summit brought together over 450 participants this year.
Summit keynotes this year included Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director, Katherine Maher, Director of Libraries at MIT, Chris Bourg, and Ruth L. Okediji, the Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard University and Co-Director of the Berkman-Klein Center. Other notable speakers include Lawrence Lessig, advocate for US democratic reform and Creative Commons founder. Yasmin Fedda, BAFTA-nominated filmmaker, presented exclusive footage from her film, “Ayouni,” which probes the fates of Bassel Khartabil and Italian Jesuit priest Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, two high-profile figures in Syria’s pro-democracy movement who were both forcibly disappeared in the early days of the Syrian revolution. Creative Commons’ CEO Ryan Merkley moderated a conversation with the filmmaker.
During the summit, Creative Commons also announced the launch of its new CC Certificates program, an in-depth course and certification program about Creative Commons open licenses, open practices and the ethos of the Commons, CC’s new Global Network outreach strategy to expand and grow a global community of affiliates and volunteers, and announced a landmark 1.4 billion works shared under CC licenses.
The Mosireen Collective: 858.ma Archive – 
Sharq.org: Arab World Voices Library – 
ASI-REM / ADEF Lebanon: Youth Media Activists Camp – 
