[open-bibliography] Fwd: [Bibliotecari] Fwd: La Russia dà l'esempio

Karen Coyle kcoyle at kcoyle.net
Thu Oct 16 14:10:09 UTC 2014 

I didn't see this elsewhere, so I am passing it along here. Not 
bibliographic, but apparently a major opening for Russia. - kc


-------- Messaggio inoltrato --------
Oggetto: 	Free licenses and freedom of panorama now recognized in
Russian law!
Data: 	Tue, 14 Oct 2014 23:21:49 +0000
Mittente: 	wikimediablog



Free licenses and freedom of panorama now recognized in Russian law!
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Main_Building_of_Moscow_state_University.jpg> 



One of the undeleted images: Main building of Moscow State University
(“Main Building of Moscow state University”
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Main_Building_of_Moscow_state_University.jpg> 

by Victor Morozov (Rdfr <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Rdfr>),
under CC-BY-2.5 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/legalcode>)

Wikimedia Russia <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Russia>
congratulates the Russians and all the proponents of free culture to the
changes in the Russian Civil Code, which are very significant for the
promotion of the free knowledge. Particularly, the amendments are
extremely important for Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects; and for
developers of free software. The amendments entered into force on
October 1st, 2014; Wikimedia RU actively participated in their preparation.

Among the numerous changes, we should mention:

   * Open licenses introduced.

         The new law directly recognizes free licenses (which are
         fundamental for projects like Wikipedia or Linux). The authors
         of free content will be able to have legal protection from
         misuse of their works.

   * Freedom of panorama
     <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_panorama> introduced.

         Now it is allowed to take photos in any public territory. The
         photographers are no more formally offenders, as before when
         nobody was allowed to sell postcards with modern buildings
         without the permission of the architect or his successors
         (despite the fact that such situation was quite usual in
         practice). Unfortunately, monuments are still not covered by the
         introduced amendments.

   * Libraries are allowed to keep in electronic format dilapidated works
     and those scientific and educational works that have not been
     republished for more than 10 years.

Â

«The direct inclusion of the stipulations on the free licenses into the
law is a progressive step not only for Russia, but worldwide. There are
no specific articles on free licenses in other countries’ laws, and
hence these licenses are still in a grey area there. Actually, free
licenses exploit the archaic tercentenary system of copyright, that
always limited the readers’ freedoms in order to allow the authors and
the publishers to earn money, for the opposite goal – to protect
the readers’ right to free access. Therefore, without direct
regulation, there is too vast judicial discretion, and free licenses
users are not protected perfectly. In the Russian law there are no
uncertainties like that anymore. Up to the wording that covers copyleft
clauses as well; they poorly fit the traditional laws.» — explained
Wikimedia RU director Vladimir Medeyko.

Members of Wikimedia RU worked hard on these and other amendments in the
Civil Code. Namely:

   * In 2009-2010, numerous letters with the description of the problems
     and possible solutions were sent to special committees of the State
     Duma.
   * In 2010-2011, the directors of Wikimedia RU – Vladimir Medeyko
     <https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Drbug> and Stanislav Kozlovskiy
     <https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ctac> – participated in
     sessions of the expert groups of the Committee of culture and the
     Committee of information policy and communications of the State Duma.
   * In April 2011, during a meeting with then Russian President Dmitry
     Medvedev, the representative of Wikimedia RU communicated the
     problems and possible solutions to the head of the state.
   * In 2011-2012, the experts from Wikimedia RU became part of the
     working group of the Ministry of Justice. We worked on the free
     licenses and related laws and also participated in various events
     organized by the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of
     Economic Development, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of
     Education and Science.
   * In 2012, the representatives of Wikimedia RU participated in
     sessions of the State Duma’s working group on intellectual
     property, attended the parliament hearings and sessions of the
     Federation Council on the information society proceedings.
   *  From 2010-2014, members of Wikimedia RU participated in more than
     200 conferences, seminars, and round tables, where they explained
     problems and ways to legalize the work. Hopefully, the foreign
     legislators will handle free licenses with the due care, and the
     uncertainty will vanish.

<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Petrovskiy_football_stadium_in_SPB.jpg> 



Featured image of Petrovskiy stadium in St. Petersburg that won’t be
deleted now
(“Petrovskiy football stadium in SPB
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Petrovskiy_football_stadium_in_SPB.jpg>” 

by Florstein, under CC BY-SA 3.0
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>)

Â
What is the impact of these amendments on the Wikimedia movement?

   * more than four hundred
 
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Russian_FOP_cases/undeleted>
     deletion requests due to prior restrictions were cancelled and files
     were undeleted;
   * Commons will be able to receive thousands
     of images that couldn’t be uploaded before;
   * Now Russia can legally participate in the Wiki Loves Monuments
 
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/09/05/wiki-loves-monuments-2014-has-begun/>
     contest, which is running <http://wikilovesmonuments.ru/> till the
     end of October. Unfortunately, sculptures and monuments are still
     not covered by the changed law, but photos of historic buildings are
     permitted now and this opens wide opportunities for participation in
     the contest.


/Linar Khalitov <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Rubin16>,
Wikimedia Russia/





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