Yesterday, the European Parliament passed the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, including articles 11 and 13. The consolidated trilogue text was approved by 348 votes in favour, 274 votes against and 36 abstentions. As a think tank working for Openness in IT markets, we see this as a bad blow to the Open Internet, and Openness in general.

As for the goal of the SaveCodeshare.eu campaign, we managed to exclude “open source software development and sharing platforms” from the Directive’s scope, which was the most direct threat to Free and Open Source software development in the text.

OpenForum Europe and the Free Software Foundation Europe will follow the transposition processes (making the Copyright Directive actual Member State law). An exclusion in a Directive is not as written in stone as a regulation, and we need to make sure that our exclusion does not get lost in translation. We will call on our like-minded parties to help us in this process.

One positive note: our campaign and efforts, not just in Brussels but also in the Member States, have led to increased knowledge of FOSS among more policymakers. This means that if or when we need to save FOSS from other efforts to close the digital space in Europe, we have a stronger foundation to advocate from.

We also have a reinvigorated network of FOSS advocates. At OFE we will dedicate our future efforts to connect advocates, academics, experts and policy makers to discuss positive and proactive efforts going forward.

Lastly, thanks to all of you that spoke out and supported our campaign!

The post Copyright Directive Approved with Art. 11 & 13 appeared first on OpenForum Europe.

As a pro-Openness think tank, OpenForum Europe has grave reservations about the consolidated text. Aside from the explicit aims of the text, we are deeply concerned with the unintended consequences that could stem from trying to solve a perceived specific problem by adjusting the fundamental building blocks of the Internet.

The original proposal could have regulated the platforms software developers use, cooling incentives to innovate and making software more fragile in Europe. In response to this, OFE and FSFE started the SaveCodeshare.eu-campaign back in 2017. The OFE Intellectual Property Taskforce, chaired by Abby Vollmer of GitHub and James Lovegrove of Red Hat, coordinated our efforts with thousands of developers, researchers, businesses, activists and organisations. Together we wrote letters, petitions, and held meetings and events in Brussels and in the EU member states.

In the end, we managed to save codeshare from the risks presented by the Copyright Directive; article 13 now excludes “open source software development and sharing platforms” from its scope (see article 2(5) in the provisional agreement). At least this one unintended consequence has been avoided.

The platforms (or ‘Online content sharing service providers’ in the language of the Directive) that are included in the scope, will in practice be required to filter uploaded content, as they will be liable for copyrighted content uploaded by their users.

We thank everyone who got engaged and spoke up!

From a wider perspective, however, OFE has learned that we were able to raise awareness and understanding of what drives software development in Europe today among many policymakers.

Misunderstandings of how software ecosystem operates/collaborates, about the pervasive use of Free and Open Source software licenses, and the power and mainstream commercial nature of Open Source Software led to it development being an unintended victim of the Copyright Directive.

We corrected this oversight by taking the time to educate and inform, in order to get the text right. We still have lots to do, however. What is promising is that we now have an engaged and broad coalition of Open Source citizens who have proven that we can be effective.

Beyond the exclusion, the most important result of our campaign is that we have spent the time educating policy makers. We spoke up, and they listened.

For the coming years, Open Source advocacy should in our view move out of the defensive stance, and engage with policy makers on positive and constructive terms. This will be important as the EU and Member State governments move to regulate the tech space.

Let’s do our part to ensure open source software never becomes an unintended victim of regulation.

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That is why OpenForum Europe and the Free Software Foundation Europe have organised a European Software Freedom Policy meeting to take place on 29 January. It will bring together dedicated organisations to discuss the merits of Openness in Europe. This meeting will enable the participants to find out what other groups are working on, identify synergies and benefit from each others’ knowledge.
One Member of the European Parliament and a representative from the European Commission are planned to share insights of relevant EU policiy and progress with the registered participants.

The space is very limited and it is upon invitation only. If you want to join the meeting, please contact Diana Cocoru (diana@openforumeurope.org) or Matthias Kirschner (mk@fsfe.org) for more information.

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Cloud computing is still in its infancy, with new services constantly being developed, as technological advances come to meet evolving user needs. A recent study financed by the European Commission reveals that, from 2015 to 2020, cloud computing could add a cumulative total of €449bn to the EU28 GDP, creating 1 million new jobs in the process.

These days,  we continue to see interesting developments in cloud computing: many of the more exciting and promising cloud computing products, especially at the infrastructure level, result from collaborations. Open Source based projects like OpenStack or Cloud Foundry are increasingly becoming global industry platforms. On top of this infrastructure, cloud service providers are trying to differentiate themselves and to create unique, innovative services, tailored to the need of their potential users.

How is this trend impacting the cloud computing marketplace as a whole? How to combine a flourishing market of innovative, unique services with users’ demands for flexible, interoperable cloud solutions? Will collaborative work around cloud infrastructure result in formal standards that could facilitate users to link services from different providers and/or to change providers in the future?

This Round Table will open with keynote speeches from our panelists. The following debates with all participants will be held under the Chatham House Rule and will be moderated by Graham Taylor, OFE’s Chief Executive. A cocktail reception will follow the event.

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