Hello everyone, As some of you know South Africa does not have Freedom of Panorama which causes significant problems for Wikipedia editors wanting to upload certain pictures of public art and buildings on Commons. The South African government is now redrafing the Copyright act so now is the most ideal time to try and get Freedom of Panorama included into the new act.
The Wikimedia South Africa board unanimously voted <http://wikimedia.org.za/wiki/Board_Meeting_12_December_2016>to support efforts to get Freedom of Panorma included into the new act, as did the South African editing community (in English <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_South_Africa#Copyright_Act_amendment>and Afrikaans <https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Geselshoekie/Argief2017/1#ZA_Copyright_Act_amendment> ). As such Wikimedia South Africa have started advocating for Freedom of Panorama. If you are in South Africa you might have also noticed a banner add appearing on Wikipedia advocating for Freedom of Panorama. Attached is a screenshot of that banner. From that banner you can learn more about why this is an important issue and sign a petition which will be given to Parliament by the 30th June 2017. We will also be submitting an apllication to present to parlimanet why Freedom of Panorama should be included into the new act. The deadline for those submissions is the 30th June 2017. If you would like to write to parliament to voice your support for Freedom of Panorama you my email Ms J Fubbs (Comittee Chairperson) care of Adam Hermans at [email protected]. You can learn more about the problems a lack of Freedom of Panorama has for South African editors (and South Africans generally) as well as the sign the pedition at the advocacy landing page here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Panorama_ZA Cheers, Douglas. -- Douglas Ian Scott 司道格 Skype: douglas0scott South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727 _______________________________________________ WikimediaZA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected]
