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EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’

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Re: EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’

#231

Post by wongarsu »

cyphar wrote: post #52
docdeek wrote: post #23

"Article 11 is intended to give publishers and newspapers a way to make money when companies like Google link to their stories…” Is there anything stopping a search engine like Google choosing not to link to a newspaper? Surely they can’t be required to link to a newspaper AND then pay that newspaper to do so? The trade-off if Google chose not to link to the newspaper would be a (slightly) less useful search engine,…

The problem is that Google is without question a monopoly, and so I think that there is a valid argument that it needs to be regulated and be forced to be impartial in the results shown. The fact that they show people's content without giving them page views (in a world where page views are how you get significant amounts of money, not to mention subscription opportunities) is a conscious decision to implement a feat…

> I think that there is a valid argument that it needs to be regulated and be forced to be impartial in the results shown

I agree that regulation might be useful here, and impartial search results are a good goal. But linking fees go against that. If newspaper A wants a fee from google for showing its links but newspaper B doesn't, it would be unfair to the entire market to force google to include both A and B equally. If A and B agree to charge google the same fee, that sounds a lot like a cartel doing price fixing, which is already illegal. The government could set a fixed price google has to pay, but at that point we have given up on finding a free market solution, so that's a last resort that isn't nessesary yet.

It's fine that people can demand money for links, but I don't see any scenario where this would happen in reality.

Re: EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’

#233

Post by briandear »

pjc50 wrote: post #161
ericdykstra wrote: post #6

UKIP and the Green Party joined forces to prevent Article 13 from getting rammed through without a public discussion. It was a good first step, but here we are, 2 months hence, and it was passed with virtually no amendments to the original text. This is an abhorrent decision by people who have no idea how the internet works. Markus Meechum (aka Count Dankula) was at the hearings, and reported that MEPs voting on the…

> Markus Meechum (aka Count Dankula) Do we really not have anyone better as a source than the Nazi dog guy? http://www.scotland-judiciary.org.uk/8/1962/PF-v-Mark-Meecha... (Perhaps someone from Open Rights Group or EDRI?)

Nazi Dog Guy is a perfect example of what’s wrong with the EU/Britain. He got in trouble for offending people. That is ridiculous that there are laws against offending people.

Re: EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’

#234

Post by things »

mscasts wrote: post #9

This is so sad but kind of expected. EU is run by politicians and the public has very little to no insight. After this goes through I will become a single-issue voter, to leave the EU.

If you think being outside the EU will stop politicians voting for these types of laws, here's a nice UK example for you that "make administrators and moderators of certain online forums responsible for content published on those forums"

https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/onlineforums.ht...

Re: EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’

#235

Post by zmmmmm »

This is such a great outcome for Google, they could not have gotten such a good outcome if they had bribed the legislators directly. They've essentially enshrined the infrastructure Google has already as a legal requirement for the bare minimum threshold to host a web site now. Google can sit back and stop worrying about there ever being competition from Europe now.

Re: EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’

#236

Post by buboard »

isthatart wrote: post #80

As a EU researcher, reader and author, I ask: does this reform affect my use of arXiv or say figshare? Until now I don't have a clear answer.

apparently, arxiv will have to implement a filter that stops you from posting figures or excerpts from elsevier's journals for example ?

Re: EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’

#237

Post by beaconstudios »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #229
beaconstudios wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in complete agreement, but I don't think the desire to leave is particularly contentious if it's backed by reasonable arguments (and Farage was always very keen on talking about why he didn't like the EU). The real problem comes in when we get to the point of "OK, we want to leave the EU" but immediately trigger the process without planning a strategy first. Especially with reluctant and un-aligned (May was a rem…

[flagged]

Could you please outline some of yours?

Re: EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’

#238

Post by contravariant »

pjc50 wrote: post #153
contravariant wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, first of all I have yet to hear about this vote from any of my local news sources. If I didn't browse hackernews I likely wouldn't know about it. Secondly I don't recall voting for any MEPs, as far as I can tell it's similarly not reported on. Besides given the lack of news about what any of the parties are up to it's hard to say anything about who you should even vote for. Thirdly just because somewhere at the…

> first of all I have yet to hear about this vote from any of my local news sources This is definitely a deficiency of your local press. > I don't recall voting for any MEPs Elections are held every 5 years and organised by your local electoral authorities? Which country are you in and are you a national or a resident?

I won't deny that the local press is at fault, however it's too simple to just blame them and release the EU from any responsibility. You can't have a democracy without public oversight, so if it's lacking then blaming other people for it isn't particularly persuasive. As it is the EU seems perfectly happy to keep things this way.

Re: EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’

#239

Post by remify »

psidium wrote: post #117

Oh yeah good luck trying to stop library genesis/scihub/PirateBay with that. Meanwhile everyone else doing business legally will have to suffer while the perpetrators go free. We already have lots of tools to block user access from the EU, time to upgrade them! The EU fail to understand that the internet is inherently free and you can’t regulate it well (unless you’re a dictatorship in China, but you have bigger issu…

> Oh yeah good luck trying to stop library genesis/scihub/PirateBay with that. Meanwhile everyone else doing business legally will have to suffer while the perpetrators go free.

That's not what this law purpose is. There's already copyright laws covering these cases.

Re: EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’

#240

Post by jaimex2 »

TotempaaltJ wrote: post #218
jaimex2 wrote: post #38

Is there any reason now why Google shouldn't shutdown all their EU web services and remove its divisions like it did in China? If they did so they can conveniently also ignore that $5B anti-trust fine.

A lot of money. More than they'd lose by complying, probably.

Wouldn't they still get cash from advertisers? The sites are still accessible from the EU, it just means local businesses who want to advertise need to pay the US division?
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