Wednesday Salon

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For the last few months we’ve been meeting on Wednesday nights at @fukami’s place in Brussels to discuss EU policy and free software. Each week different people came, so far a dozen different people. This topic is to announce and discuss our meetings.

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The EU Parliament voted the Copyright Directive including Article 11 (“link tax”) and Article 13 (“upload filters”).

This is a complex issue that will certainly change the face of the Internet giants. But what if it opened opportunities to support the decentralized Web and the Creative Commons?

Certainly something that can be discussed tonight at the Wednesday Salon!

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Bruce Schneier’s new book Click Here to Kill Everybody might be a good support for our discussions on EU regulatory fiasco…

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Tonight @ Wednesday Salon

NLNet has launched a call for Search & Discovery with a deadline in December. This is the first of a long series since NLNet leads the NGI-ZERO EU consortium that got two proposals through ICT-24…

Also on the menu: the #ps:hcklabxl is getting more meat on its skeleton… We’re growing!

See you at @fukami’s!

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Tonight @ Wednesday Salon

Julia Reda has announced the release of FOSSA free software inventory. FOSSA is an EU project to improve Free Software security in the EU.

#public - New ICT EC calls are out! (Also on EC’s site.)

Oh, and BTW – talking about security – the new Funding & tender opportunities site comes with a nice sign on the padlock:

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@fukami how is https://www.deep.brussels/ going? Are you still organizing the Wednesday Salon?

Have you seen my message about the MANIFESTO FOR COVID-19 RESEARCH?

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If you are a Horizon 2020 beneficiary, you received an email from the Commission calling you to support the MANIFESTO FOR EU COVID-19 RESEARCH , to “maximise the accessibility of research results in the fight against COVID-19”.

In this email, there’s a summary of the commitments you make when you endorse the manifesto. The third point triggered my attention (emphasis mine):

• Where possible, grant for a limited time, non-exclusive royalty free licences on the intellectual property resulting from EU-funded research. These non-exclusive royalty free licenses shall be given in exchange for the licensees’ commitment to rapidly and broadly distribute the resulting products and services under fair and reasonable conditions to prevent, diagnose, treat and contain Covid-19.

I find it outraging that we are called to endorse such a policy, where in my opinion, and I know it’s shared by a number of people here EU-funded research should belong to the public. Unfortunately I do not have the capacity to respond properly to this call to endorse proprietary intellect, so I urge you to question the manifesto before endorsing it, especially as it is quietly proposed as a moral duty to band together “to fight COVID-19”. I urge you to question this proposition and to make a point in telling the Commission that in order to maximise the accessibility of research results, public money must result in public research".