in our last press release on the EU Copyright Directive, Alexander Sander says:

“The exclusion of Free Software code hosting and sharing providers from this directive is crucial to keep Free Software development in Europe healthy, solid and alive”

How do we come to this conclusion? We can probably give thanks to Microsoft for their good lobby work, that they could get an exception for GitHub (maybe the purchase of GitHub had finally probably something good):

“Open source software developing and sharing platforms like GitHub should remain out of scope.” [1]

Finally, I don’t think this will help us. Other open source platforms, such as Mastodon instances, have to install upload filters if they don’t want to end up in court. I am not a lawyer and I can’t find a section in the directive that contains the opposite or can dispel my concerns about this. Can our legal team tell us what does

“Providers of services such as open source software development and sharing platforms,[…] are also excluded from this definition” [2]

in the “EU Copyright Directive” exactly mean for free and open source software projects that are not “software development and sharing platforms”?

Next, Alexander says in our names:

“We call on the European Commission to promote the dissemination of Free Software filter technologies, including financial support, for instance”

No, I won’t do that and I completely disagree! I urge the FSFE to argue *against* uploadfilters and censorship. Because it doesn’t matter if the censorship machine has an open or a closed license, At the end of the day uploadfilters serve censorship and censorship has to be abolished. There’s already enough free  software being abused for purposes of oppression and to spy on privacy in the surveillance capitalism, we don’t need another one.

I hope that we will reconsider our goals we shared in this press release.

Christian Imhorst

[1] https://github.blog/2019-02-13-the-eu-copyright-directive-what-happens-from-here/
[2] https://juliareda.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Copyright_Final_compromise.pdf

——– Originalnachricht ——–
Betreff: [FSFE PR][EN] Copyright Directive – EU safeguards Free Software at the last minute
Datum: 26.03.2019 12:59
Von: press@fsfe.org
An: press-release@lists.fsfe.org

= Copyright Directive – EU safeguards Free Software at the last minute =

[ Read online: https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190326-01.en.html ]

The European Parliament adopted the controversial Copyright Directive by
348 votes in favour, 274 votes against and 36 abstentions. Today’s vote
marks the end of years of debate in the European Union. Heated
discussions about the introduction of upload filters ended up in
protests of tens of thousands people in the streets all across Europe.
In a last minute action back in September 2018, the European Parliament
adopted an amendment and pushed it through the trilogue to at least
protect Free and Open Source Software.

“We are glad we were able to raise awareness and understanding of
what drives software development in Europe nowadays among many
policy makers. The exclusion of Free Software code hosting and
sharing providers from this directive is crucial to keep Free
Software development in Europe healthy, solid and alive. we are
dismayed that the EU missed the opportunity to renew copyright to a
reasonable extent. As upload filters are now introduced, we urge the
European Commission to avoid filtering monopolies by companies this
directive actually intended to regulate. We call on the European
Commission to promote the dissemination of Free Software filter
technologies, including financial support, for instance within the
framework of research programmes Horizon2020 and Horizon Europe.”
says Alexander Sander, Policy Manager of the Free Software
Foundation Europe.

The Free Software Foundation Europe and Open Forum Europe started a
campaign to “ Save Code Share [1] ” in 2017. More than 14.000 people
supported our call with an open letter which requests EU legislators to
preserve the ability to collaboratively build software online in current
EU Copyright Directive proposal.

1: https://savecodeshare.eu/

== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==

Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our
lives; and it is important that this technology empowers rather than
restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use,
understand, adapt and share software. These rights help support other
fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press and privacy.

The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free
Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination.
It enhances users’ rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software
adoption, encourage people to use and develop Free Software, and
provide resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software
in Europe.

http://fsfe.org
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