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European Parliament approves copyright reform

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Re: European Parliament approves copyright reform

#501

Post by adev_ »

nkkollaw wrote: post #244
varjag wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as their cashflow in Europe is in black, they will absolutely cater. But we'll see soon enough.

Doubt it. It's very easy to implement GDPR compliance, and A LOT of websites opted for blocking their content in Europe instead of working to make their services compliant. The requirements for being compliant with these directives are so difficult, than only major companies will have the resource to do it, and many will definitely not think it's worth the effort.

> It's very easy to implement GDPR compliance, and A LOT of websites opted for blocking their content in Europe instead of working to make their services compliant.

"A LOT". I live in Europe and the number of website inaccessible due to GDPR is not even one for one thousand... And most of the "non-compliant" ones are insignificant.

Only big companies or lawyers makes GDPR a big deal...

Re: European Parliament approves copyright reform

#502

Post by cromwellian »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #256
stronglikedan wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Article 13 only affects for-profit platforms that host and share copyrighted material. For now, but where will it stop (or will it)? Another commentor pointed out that even small services running ads to pay for hosting could be considered "for-profit". Maybe not now, but it's just a matter of when. First they came for the platforms run by big corporations...

Copyright enforcement has always been about going after big abuses. With some incredibly rare exceptions, generally speaking, nobody has ever been at serious risk for sending one copy of a movie or music CD to a friend. There is too much sharing and too many individual parties to chase after every way people technically violate copyright law. Many of the cases out there involved people sharing on a large scale. Examp…

I once clicked on a Torrent for a Disney movie. A day later, I received a notice from Comcast that I have 1 out of 5 strikes of accessing copyrighted content, and if I hit 5, my internet access will be terminated.

ISPs will be forced into doing more of this if piracy becomes large scale decentralized, which it will.

Copyright enforcement is about ambulance chasing. Small time channels, like game streamers, who happen to have captured a game that has a music soundtrack, have received DMCA takedown requests.

What we're witnessing here is a misplaced "I hate big tech, so therefore I support anything I perceive as targeting them" resulting in collateral damage that makes every one else's life harder, benefiting mostly rent-seeking big publishers.

The decentralization-will-fix-it cryptoanarchy workaround is a pipe dream. Every so often people imagine an unbreakable piracy distributed darknet will circumvent laws and make piracy safe and convenient for everyone, but the reality is, as soon as it becomes the dominant form, the powers that be will turn their attention to it, and the attempts to crack down on it will be far far more invasive and surveillance heavy.

Just ask Napster, LimeWire, Scour, Kazaa, Grokster, Madster, and eDonkey2000, all of which were brought down by injunctions.

Re: European Parliament approves copyright reform

#503

Post by Gaelan »

Roxo wrote: post #492
rmind wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not the EU which is the problem. It is the reluctance of the political establishment (both within the countries and across the EU) to acknowledge the opposition to such laws.

The non-democratic EU is not the problem? The people having the real power in the EU are not elected (the European Commission).

Yes, but the elected body approved it. So (to the extent that the European Parliament is democratic) "more democracy" won't fix this.

(Yes, something like direct democracy would fix this. But exiting the EU wouldn't get you that)

Re: European Parliament approves copyright reform

#504

Post by dvdkhlng »

ivolimmen wrote: post #463
koonsolo wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now, when one of my users uploads copyrighted material, I can take it down when I see it. Or when I get a complaint (DMCA takedown). We're taking about teenagers here, so it's not always clear to them that they cannot use ripped sprites from other games, or music, or whatever. Basically I can make the uploader responsible for what they upload. The secondary problem is that my biggest competitor also has a lot o…

Your platform needs to make at least x million a year and have userbase of x million and exist for at least x years. Only then the filtering is mandatory...

I think that is x million _OR_ exist for at least x years, where x is 10e6 € resp. 4.

[1] https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Mandate-R...

Re: European Parliament approves copyright reform

#505

Post by trickstra »

gniv wrote: post #414
philpem wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need only look at the rampant abuse of Content ID to see what the likely result will be... "Sorry, the video you uploaded 'Me playing Beethoven on the piano' contains BEETHOVEN'S 5TH SYMPHONY by BMG-EMI-XYZ Music Corp. You cannot upload this video."

Is that illegal though (wrongly blocking a video)? If it isn’t, YT can just shrug it off.

Wrongly blocking is not illegal. They may invoke the clause that says the platform owner can reject anything even without explanation, which is always buried somewhere in their T&C. But more importantly - even if wrongful blocking was illegal - if the ways to shut something down "just in case it might be illegal" are super fast and automatic, but the ways to challenge that outcome are super slow, then people will just give up in that process. Not all, but enough to matter.

Re: European Parliament approves copyright reform

#506

Post by mcv »

dijit wrote: post #239
makomk wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing we can do, by design. The European Commission has the exclusive ability to create new laws, and they're almost totally isolated from any kind of democratic control.

That's not true at all; they are: A) Elected (though, indirectly, through the elected officials that you elect to be MEPs) and B) A body of law drafters and implementors with no powers to ascend anything to law by themselves. The EC requires the EU parliament to vote on laws that it drafts, the EU parliament can require that laws be redrafted or amended. But the EU parliament is the only place a proposal can become l…

The European Commission is sadly not elected by the MEPs, but by PMs of the member states. The European Parliament has to approve the Commission, but can only approve or reject the entire Commission, and not individual members of it.

Re: European Parliament approves copyright reform

#507

Post by isostatic »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #389
isostatic wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU Parliament, who we vote for every 5 years (and have elections coming up), vote for a law. You don't like said law, therefore it's undemocratic? The way the parliament is elected is quite fair - it gives a little more power to people in smaller countries, but that's not unusual (UK westminster constituencies vary from 22k to 120k. U.S. congress areas are more even, ranging from 500k to 1 million). There's an ar…

>The way the parliament is elected is quite fair - it gives a little more power to people in smaller countries, but that's not unusual (UK westminster constituencies vary from 22k to 120k. U.S. congress areas are more even, ranging from 500k to 1 million). There's an argument that it should be more even than the current 11:1 ratio, but we call the U.S. senate democratic and that's a 69:1 ratio. At least call out the…

> At least call out the House of Representatives

I did ("U.S. congress areas are more even, ranging from 500k to 1 million")

> The senate is supposed to be at a state level by design

Yes, same as the EU Council (which is 1 rep per country, although that rep is the head of government of each country rather than directly elected -- I believe the senate started off in a similar fashion)

The U.S. House is more balanced than the UK parliament or European Parliament, but it's not an insane inbalance. Not sure what would happen if American Samoa became a state. Would it's rep get a vote? If so that would be 1 vote for 55k people. You'd have to have about 6000 reps in that case to have an even spread.

Re: European Parliament approves copyright reform

#508

Post by isostatic »

Xelbair wrote: post #230
isostatic wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU Parliament, who we vote for every 5 years (and have elections coming up), vote for a law. You don't like said law, therefore it's undemocratic? The way the parliament is elected is quite fair - it gives a little more power to people in smaller countries, but that's not unusual (UK westminster constituencies vary from 22k to 120k. U.S. congress areas are more even, ranging from 500k to 1 million). There's an ar…

>The EU Parliament, who we vote for every 5 years (and have elections coming up), vote for a law. You don't like said law, therefore it's undemocratic? I'm more annoyed that they keep pushing the similar legislatures despite widespread protests. remember ACTA and others? It looks to me like they will keep pushing same stuff, that people actually do not want, again and again - just wait some time until the heat dies d…

The solution is to vote them out.

Re: European Parliament approves copyright reform

#509

Post by zaarn »

i6tjvo wrote: post #483
zaarn wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU Elections are coming up. Vote for the pirate faction in your country or check who voted what and only vote for those parties that voted against A13 or if there are none, parties that are vocal against A13. Same goes for your countries own election cycle.

Let's be honest here, I have much bigger fish to fry. I like a free Internet, but it's low on my list of concerns, way below affordable housing, much stricter control of my country's borders, better support for entrepreneurs, more security and better police, etc. I'm not going to vote for a "pirate party" as if that was the most important thing in my life.

You just watched conservative MEPs completely ignore all expert advice, all protesting, all petitions in favor of listening to lobby advocates and you still think that if the same happens on a problem you care about they will suddenly listen to you instead of the lobby?

Re: European Parliament approves copyright reform

#510

Post by llcoolv »

koonsolo wrote: post #337
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's weird to me is: Europe isn't exactly a content powerhouse. Why are they so concerned with copyright protections?

Because politicians are stupid. If you look at the pros and cons of this law, Europe has nothing to gain. Not for the people, not for the companies. This is a law that works to mainly serve the big copyright holders, and in a second degree, impacts the big tech multinationals (=read US companies) less than the smaller ones. It makes no sense at all. Especially since all member states will have their own law. "Does ou…

The point with the complexity is a very funny one. Actually those people in Brussels are almost exclusively humanitarian degree students who haven't built even a doghouse during their lifetimes.

They see overcomplexity not as a problem, but as a source of pride and a major bragging point. It is actually a massive clash of cultures even though they come from the same place as the people they are trying to govern.

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