Submissions:2016/Public Policy Advocacy Across Both Coasts

From WikiConference North America
Revision as of 05:40, 1 September 2016 by Antony-22 (talk | contribs) (links)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Title
Public Policy Advocacy Across Both Coasts
Theme
Policy and outreach
Academic Peer Review option
No
Type of submission
Panel
Author
John Sadowski, Peter Meyer, Jim Hayes, Charles Roslof
E-mail address
jpsadowski@post.harvard.edu
Username
Antony-22
Affiliation
Wikimedia District of Columbia / Wikimedia Foundation
Abstract
This will be a joint panel discussion containing members of both the Wikimedia Foundation's legal team and Wikimedia District of Columbia's Public Policy Committee.
We will discuss how each organization approaches public policy, and how we participate in policy conversations. We will discuss the limits on lobbying that we face as nonprofits, the meetings and discussions we have had with government officials (including congressional staff and a member of the European parliament), and the process of submitting written statements to government bodies.
We will recount our recent and ongoing advocacy efforts, on topics such as:
  • Orphan works reform. Orphan works are works whose authors are unknown or uncontactable, and thus cannot be reused while they are under copyright. Many countries have provisions allowing the reuse of orphan works under certain circumstances, but the United States as of yet does not. The Copyright Office has been undertaking a study to develop recommendations to Congress on allowing the reuse of orphan works, to which WMF and WMDC have submitted written statements (WMDC, WMF).
  • Public domain status of California state government works. California is one of the few U.S. states whose works are considered to be in the public domain. Earlier this year, the California Legislature considered a bill which would have placed some or all of its state works under copyright. Both WMF and WMDC submitted letters to the California Senate Judiciary Committee (WMF, WMDC) opposing this change, as Wikimedia projects currently host over 1100 public domain images from the California government.
Other topics will include the US copyright notice-and-takedown system, and a content removal in Canada. We will also describe some recent court decisions, as well as the U.S. federal government efforts toward open data and open source policy, which are likely to make it easier for government staff to work cooperatively on Wikimedia software and data, and for Wikimedians to make use of what the government can offer.
Length of presentation
30-45 min.
Special schedule requests
Afternoon preferred
Preferred room size
25-50
Will you attend WikiConference North America if your submission is not accepted?
Yes

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with four tildes. (~~~~).

  1. Add your username here.