Re: [Wikimedia-SF] [Publicpolicy] US/California AB 2880 vs PD-California?

[Mike Linksvayer]

On 06/14/2016 12:56 PM, Stephen LaPorte wrote:
> I wanted to share a copy of a letter that we sent on AB
> 2880: 
> https://policy.wikimedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wikimedia-ab2880.pdf
> 
> As well as a blog post on the
> topic: 
> https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/06/14/california-government-public-domain/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/06/california-legislature-drops-proposal-copyright-all-government-works

EFF warned the bill’s authors about these problems in early
May. Soon after, numerous other organizations joined in opposition
from library groups to open government advocates to newspapers,
Internet companies, and the California Chamber of Commerce. And
more than 360 Californians wrote to their state legislators through
EFF’s Action Center to sound the alarm.

Those efforts have paid off. This week, the bill was amended to
remove the new intellecutual property powers and the new exemptions
to CPRA. What remains are provisions for better tracking of state
patents, trademarks, and copyrights, and a new requirement that
state agencies “consider” the intellectual property rights of
all parties when they write contracts. These changes should help
avoid situations like the ongoing trademark dispute over hotels and
campgrounds in Yosemite National Park, without harming public access
to government records and data.

Based on the new amendments, EFF is dropping its opposition to
A.B. 2880. Thank you to everyone who weighed in on this issue for
sending a strong message that the abuse of intellectual property
laws can harm many different sectors of society, and that preventing
those abuses needs to be a top priority for our lawmakers. Thanks
also to Assemblymember Mark Stone for listening and responding to
Californians’ concerns with this bill.

Well done!

Mike

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Re: [Wikimedia-SF] [Publicpolicy] US/California AB 2880 vs PD-California?

[Mike Linksvayer]

On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 11:53 PM, Pete Forsyth  wrote:
> Thanks for sharing this, Mike. Sounds like something we should discuss at
> the upcoming WikiSalon next Wednesday evening. I have some friends (outside
> the wiki world) who know California lawmaking fairly well, I will ask around
> a bit beforehand.

I'm not in the area today but for those interested there's been a bit
more discussion on the publicpolicy list, where Timothy Vollmer noted:

  CC wrote a post about it -
  https://blog.creativecommons.org/2016/05/19/california-bill/
  Also, EFF has an action page up now where California residents can send a
  message to state reps.
  https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10331

Mike

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Re: [Wikimedia-SF] [Publicpolicy] US/California AB 2880 vs PD-California?

[Mike Linksvayer]

On 05/15/2016 08:07 PM, John P. Sadowski wrote:
> That is quite troubling, given that the committee approvals were
> near-unanimous.  Is it possible that the bill could be interpreted
> to apply retroactively, meaning we'd have to remove those 1048 items?

I don't see anything retroactive in the text, but I also don't see
anything that would strictly prohibit state agencies and local
governments from treating previous publications as subject to copyright.

I see that User:Gazebo has posted at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Copyright#Proposed_law_in_California_to_extend_copyright_to_CA_state_and_local_government_works
to no discussion yet.

> Any idea when the bill comes up with a vote?  Wikimedia DC could
> possibly draft and send a letter giving Wikimedia-specific examples,
> or we could work with the Foundation legal team to do so.

I don't know when it can be expected to come up for a vote. I should
know more about California lawmaking than I do, which is almost nothing.
I've copied wikimedia-sf; maybe some local California government maven
lurks there and could say.

Mike


>> On May 15, 2016, at 9:47 PM, Mike Linksvayer  wrote:
>>
>> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/04/ab-2880 "California's Legislature
>> Wants to Copyright All Government Works"
>>
>> More background at
>> https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160417/09213934197/california-assembly-looks-to-push-cities-to-copyright-trademark-everything-they-can.shtml
>>
>> According to http://copyright.lib.harvard.edu/states/ California is one
>> of the three most "open" regarding government works. Presumably it won't
>> be anymore if AB 2880 becomes law.
>>
>> California is one of only two U.S. states with a category under
>> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_domain_by_government
>> -- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:PD_California (1048 items).
>>
>> I haven't investigated whether and how many of those items would be
>> subject to copyright had AB 2880 been California law at the times of
>> their publication.
>>
>> Skimming the bill's changes to present law at
>> https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2880
>> it seems the one or two maybe dangerous additions are these:
>>
>>> A public entity may own, license, and, if it deems it appropriate,
>>> formally register intellectual property it creates or otherwise
>>> acquires.
>>
>> The assembly's analysis views this as a clarification, but it could open
>> the door to widespread use (or copyright apologists would say, abuse) of
>> copyright by local government, as the EFF says, "to chill speech, stifle
>> open government, and harm the public domain."
>>
>>> (A) A state agency shall not enter into a contract under this
>>> article that waives the state’s intellectual property rights unless
>>> the state agency, prior to execution of the contract, obtains the
>>> consent of the department to the waiver.
>>>
>>> (B) An attempted waiver of the state’s intellectual property rights
>>> by a state agency that violates subparagraph (A) shall be deemed
>>> void as against public policy.
>>
>> It is not clear to me whether this addition might serve as a barrier to
>> agencies deciding to publish material under open licenses. In the
>> meantime, I assume it will foster such barriers in practice.
>>
>> https://twitter.com/mitchstoltz/status/731282363674562560 says "[EFF]'ll
>> probably issue an action alert, but meantime, call your state assembly
>> member's office & ask them to oppose."
>>
>> If this is indeed a threat, I wonder if there's anything Wikimedians can
>> do to oppose it, in addition to those of us in California calling our
>> state assembly members?
>>
>> Mike
>>
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[Wikimedia-SF] Internet Archive Salon SF March 3

[Mike Linksvayer]

http://blog.openlibrary.org/2010/02/25/internet-archive-salon-in-san-francisco/

When: Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Where: Gray Area Foundation for the Arts @ 55 Taylor Street, San
Francisco, CA 94102

I thought to mention upon reading on foundation-l the following:






On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 5:13 AM, David Gerard  wrote:
>
> On 1 March 2010 12:52, Andrew Gray  wrote:
>
> > Judging from (an older version of?) the website, it's a general
> > non-commercial license on all submissions:
> > ::: The archive contains "free" sheet music, free for non-commercial usage. 
> > This
> > ::: means that you may download the files and print paper copies, but 
> > neither
> > ::: the files nor the paper copies may be sold. (...)
> > http://www.daimi.au.dk/~reccmo/scores/Introduction.html#copyright
> > I suspect the older (& definitionally public domain) material, could
> > be rehosted, but we'd have to seperate that out from the rest, and
> > then tackle the problem of whether any "editing" people have done to
> > them gives rise to new copyrights...
>
>
> So if we can help them find a new home that isn't us, we can at least
> then pick out and curate the PD stuff.
>
> Anyone got a contact at IA or ibiblio?
>
>
> - d.
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-SF] SF loves Wikipedia? (was next meetup)

[Mike Linksvayer]

On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 16:57, Cary Bass  wrote:
> I would also like to see us do something like
>
> "San Francisco Loves Wikipedia"  or "The Bay Area Loves Wikipedia" or
> similar, given the fact that we were unable to take part in last
> February's "Wikis Love Art" because our museums did not get back to us
> in time.
>
> See  as an
> example of a future event.  I think we might even plan something for
> sooner, on a smaller scale.  Heck, I'm even willing to devote myself
> under "volunteer time" for something like this :)

I'd definitely volunteer personally and publicize via Creative Commons.

A bay area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_The_City
may be a step toward organizing something bigger in cooperation with
memory institutions?

Mike

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[Wikimedia-SF] Creative Commons Salon SF featuring Wikinews tonight (Wednesday)

[Mike Linksvayer]

The theme is "CC and Citizen Journalism", featuring:

Of Wikinews: Volunteer Coordinator Cary Bass and Bay Area "Wikinewsie"
volunteer Jon Davis will talk about their experience at Wikinews, a
global citizen journalism effort and project of the Wikimedia
Foundation.

Of Spot.us: David Cohn, who has been involved with myriad citizen
journalism projects, the likes of which include NewAssignment.net and
his current endeavor, Spot.us - a crowdfunding journalism project of
the nonprofit Center for Media Change.

Music for the evening will be provided by DJ qubitsu.

The Salon will be at Shine Bar (21+)
1337 Mission St, San Francisco
Wednesday Nov 19, from 7-9 pm

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/10726
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/10785

Mike

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