I wasn't sure if this was to be forwarded but now I have clarification, here it is. It is related to the thread "Debian infrastructure in the EU / copyright challenges"
-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [Until 21 August] Your comment about legislative changes for code sharing platforms Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2017 06:53:03 +0000 From: Matthias Kirschner <m...@fsfe.org> To: associa...@lists.fsfe.org Dear associates, We are contacting you because the EU is currently updating its copyright law and the proposed changes can have strong negative implications for collaborative software development. As you might be affected from those changes, we would highly appreciate your comments, which might be helpful for the research paper we are currently working on. # What is this about? The European Union works on regulation which will be very hard for online code sharing platforms to comply with, and will increase the risk for users to loose their code hosted on those platforms. The proposed Article 13 of the Copyright Directive and its recital 38 are directly relevant for the software development platforms. Several committees of the European Parliament have already proposed amendments, and some of them go even further than the Proposal of the Commission. These legislative proposals can extensively hinder collaborative software development, and especially Free and Open Source Software. New rules proposed by the EU will create legal uncertainty for developers using online tools when contributing to the Free and Open Source projects through online code sharing platforms. The newly proposed obligations on code sharing platforms will threaten their existence, and effective online co-development by: * Imposing on code sharing platforms the use of costly filtering technologies to prevent any possible copyright infringement; * Imposing illegal monitoring obligation to track their every user. As a result, every user, of a code sharing platform: an individual, company, or a public body is treated as a potential copyright infringer whose content, including the whole code repositories, can be taken down and disabled at any time. The vote in the parliamentary lead committee is scheduled for October. More details on the proposed changes of the EU law are to be found at the end of this e-mail. # What OFE and the FSFE are doing We are drafting a research paper, accompanied by an online engagement tool to be launched in early September, to inform policy-makers of the dangerous consequences of the proposed EU copyright rules for collaborative software development. For that we are gathering figures and comments about FOSS development and how collaborative software development platforms are used (i.e. GitLab, GitHub, GNU Savannah, etc., or even self run services with a large user base). That is where you come in. # How you can help We hope you can give us your input on the importance of code sharing platforms, deriving from your experience with them. Your feedback is extremely important, in order to bring your voices to the policy makers and highlight the barriers they might impose on Free Software development. For your comment the following questions might help you: * Were you aware of the proposed changes of the Copyright Directive (Article 13 and its related recital 38)? * Which web-based version control repositories, either provided by a third party or hosted by yourself, do you use? * For which kind of activities do you use any of the web-based version control repositories? * To what extent do you use any of the web-based version control repositories for your own code and software project management? * do you have any other feedback/comments on the directive? # Contact Details Please give send your feedback before **21 August** to Polina Malaja <pol...@fsfe.org> and Matthias Kirschner <m...@fsfe.org> so that your input is included in the research paper. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you in advance. Best Regards, Matthias # Reference with detailed background information * Commission's proposal <http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52016PC0593> * IMCO Opinion <http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&reference=PE-599.682&format=PDF&language=EN&secondRef=02> * ITRE Opinion (amendments 25, 49 and 52) <http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fNONSGML%2bCOMPARL%2bPE-592.363%2b03%2bDOC%2bPDF%2bV0%2f%2fEN> * JURI draft Opinion * <http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-601.094+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN>, * <http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-603.009+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN>, * <http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-603.010+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN>, * <http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-604.543+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN>, * <http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-604.544+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN>, * <http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-604.545+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN>. -- Matthias Kirschner - President - Free Software Foundation Europe Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany | t +49-30-27595290 Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030 | (fsfe.org/join) Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner) - Weblog (k7r.eu/blog.html) _______________________________________________ Associates mailing list associa...@lists.fsfe.org https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/associates _______________________________________________ Team mailing list t...@lists.fsfe.org https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/team
