Edgeryder’s Nadia EL-Imam reports on the progress of EU’s copyright consultation
Amelia Andersdotter
Today the following message popped up in my feeds and reminded me why I want to see Swedish MEP Amelia Andersdotter in the European Parliament for at least another mandate:
The Copyright Consultation of the EU received 11,117 replies in the course of 2 months! I believe that the outstanding efforts of the Copywrongs team, an impromptu organized chaos which made a decision on the whim to just do it and make it easy for the general public to answer about copyright, was one of the reasons why the EU got so many replies! Super proud of having influenced EU policy and allowed thousands to do so as well!
The background is that when the European Commission finally did get around to opening a public consultation on Copyright Reform, they did such a bad job of it that it would have failed had it not been for a remarkable initiative from Amelia, Ásta Helgadóttir and their peers in the Pirate movement. It’s a great story, you can read about it here.
It’s obvious to many of us who grew up using, building and living in the age of the Internet that you get more done through sharing and collaboration.
That being involved in participatory culture is way more engaging and meaningful than being treated like a passive consumer. And that coupled with free mobility across national borders, being able to study, work anywhere you choose…to be able to go where your heart or mind takes you is something worth fighting for. That we should be striving to make this available to more people.
So it should not come as a surprise that when we manage to get people who do in positions of power, the European Parliament in Amelia’s case, they collaborate with their peers all over the world in new ways. And reshape how policy is done, the process not just the content. This is the direction in which I want my society to move.
More sharing, collaboration and real participation.
And yes more space to build a future that does not sacrifice the good of the many, to preserve the priveledges of a few