Felix Reda

Felix Reda (formerly Julia Reda; born 30 November 1986) is a German researcher, politician, and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany. He was a member of the Pirate Party Germany until 27 March 2019, part of The Greens–European Free Alliance. He has been Vice-President of the Greens/EFA group since 2014.[1] He was also previously the president of Young Pirates of Europe.[2] After the 2019 European Parliament election, Reda was succeeded by Patrick Breyer (Pirate Party Germany), Marcel Kolaja, Markéta Gregorová, and Mikuláš Peksa (Czech Pirate Party).

Felix Reda
MEP
Vice President of The Greens–European Free Alliance
In office
10 July 2014 – 1 July 2019
Preceded byNew office
Member of the European Parliament
In office
1 July 2014 – 1 July 2019
ConstituencyGermany
Personal details
Born
Julia Reda

(1986-11-30) 30 November 1986
Bonn, West Germany
Political party
Alma materUniversity of Mainz
Websitefelixreda.eu/en/
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In 2019, Reda became a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard.[3] In 2020, he began working for the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF, 'Society for Civil Rights'), as expert for copyright and freedom of communication.[4][5]

Political career

Reda became a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany when he was 16 years old.[6] He studied politics and publicity sciences at the University of Mainz.[2] In 2009, Reda started to become active for the national Pirate Party and from 2010 to 2012 he was chairperson of the Young Pirates (Junge Piraten). In 2013, he was one of the co-founders of the Young Pirates of Europe. In January 2014, he was chosen to top the list of the candidates for the European Elections for the Pirate Party Germany, who subsequently won one seat.[7]

In the European Parliament, Reda joined the Greens/EFA group. He was a member of the Legal Affairs committee as well as a substitute member of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and Petitions committees.[8] He was on the Steering Committee of the Digital Agenda intergroup, a forum of MEPs interested in digital issues.[9]

On 27 March 2019, he announced in an online video that he had left the Pirate Party, protesting the fact that his former employee Gilles Bordelais had been admitted as a candidate in the European elections while being under investigation for sexual harassment.[10][4]

In 2014, Reda said that copyright reform would be his focus for the legislative term.[11]

In November 2014, Reda was named rapporteur of the Parliament's review of 2001's Copyright Directive.[12] His draft report[13] recommended the EU-wide harmonisation of copyright exceptions, a reduction in term length, broad exceptions for educational purposes[14] and a strengthening of authors' negotiating position in relation to publishers, among other measures.[15]

Stakeholder reaction varied as the German artist coalition Initiative Urheberrecht generally welcomed the draft[16] while the French collecting society SACD said it was "unacceptable";[17] author and copyright activist Cory Doctorow called the proposals "amazingly sensible",[18] while former Swedish Pirate MEP Amelia Andersdotter criticised them as too conservative.[19]

In 2015, Reda's report was passed by the legal affairs committee, but with an amendment that recommended restricting freedom of panorama in Europe.[20] Reda strongly opposed this amendment and campaigned against it.[21] The amendment was later voted down by the plenary of the European Parliament.[22]

In 2019, Reda was described as a leader in the protests against Article 13 (colloquially called the "upload filter" provision) of the proposed EU Copyright Directive, in which 100,000 people participated in street demonstrations on March 23, 2019.[23]

MEP Reda at informal meeting in Washington, DC, concerning copyright issues in the United States (2015)

Personal life

On 26 January 2022, Reda announced that he is transgender and now uses the first name Felix.[4][24]

References
  1. "Bureau". Greens/EFA group. Archived from the original on 23 May 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
  2. "Julia Reda" (in German). Pirate Party Germany. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  3. "Julia Reda". Berkman Klein Center. 2019-09-07. Retrieved 2019-09-07.
  4. Löffler, Juliane (26 January 2022). "Exklusiv: Ehemaliger EU-Abgeordneter Felix Reda outet sich als trans" [Exclusive: former member of the EU Parliament Felix Reda comes out as trans]. Buzzfeed (in German).
  5. "Team". GFF – Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  6. Widmannurl, Stefanie (10 January 2014). "Gebürtige Bonnerin ist Spitzenkandidatin der Piraten für Europawahlen". General-Anzeiger Bonn (in German). Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  7. Sharwood, Simon (2014-05-26). "Pirate Party runs aground in European Parliamentary elections". The Register. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
  8. "Member profile". European Parliament. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
  9. "Steering Committee". Digital Agenda Intergroup in the European Parliament. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  10. Warum die Piraten zur Europawahl unwählbar sind: Kandidat Gilles Bordelais [Why the Pirates in the European election should not be elected: candidate Gilles Bordelais] (in German), 27 March 2019
  11. "I will continue the cooperation with Greens/EFA". Julia Reda official website. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
  12. Falkvinge, Rick (4 January 2015). "In Europe, Pirates Are Writing The Copyright Law". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  13. "Draft Report on the implementation of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society - PE 546.580v02-00". European Union.
  14. Steadman, Ian (30 January 2015). "The Pirate Party's lone MEP might just fix copyright across the EU". New Statesman. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  15. "Major copyright law reform on the EU agenda". ALCS News. 21 January 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  16. Pfenning, Gerhard (21 January 2015). "EU-Urheberrecht: Oettinger und Reda auf der Suche". Initiative Urheberrecht (in German). Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  17. "Copyright: an unacceptable draft report at the European Parliament" (in French). Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques. 22 January 2015. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  18. Doctorow, Cory (22 January 2015). "They put a Pirate Party MEP in charge of EU copyright reform: you won't believe awesomesauce that followed". Boing Boing. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  19. Andersdotter, Amelia (25 January 2015). "Pirate Party MEP fails to deliver true copyright reform". TorrentFreak.
  20. Morris, Hugh (24 June 2015). "Freedom of panorama: EU proposal could mean holiday snaps breach copyright". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  21. Reda, Julia. "Freedom of Panorama under threat". Julia Reda website. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  22. Seddon, Paul (9 July 2015). "European Parliament as it happened: 9 July 2015". BBC News Online. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  23. Lisa Hegemann (2019-03-26), "Julia Reda: Sie hat schon gewonnen", Die Zeit (in German), Hamburg, ISSN 0044-2070, retrieved 2019-03-29
  24. Reda, Felix. "Hello world!" (tweet).
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