The headline seems misleading, since this was a decision by the EU Court of Justice that said the Dutch would have to stop downloading. The Netherlands themselves didn't ban anything.
Netherlands bans illegal downloading
31–40 of 60 posts
Re: Netherlands bans illegal downloading
#32Quite staggering how a non-elected instance can make major decisions for an entire country. Just like that.
Well, it can be quite the double edged sword. After all, the same non-elected instance has recently enforced net neutrality in the EU (and it certainly received a lot of praise for that). It has also recently introduced a ban on roaming charges on mobile networks abroad (but within the EU). In the case of the Netherlands, it has recently ruled a law, which forces providers to store metadata of their clients for 6 to…
The problem is not that 'you gain some, you lose some'. The problem is that you lose some and then you lose some more.
When the EU declared the DRD no longer in force the Dutch national entities enforcing it immediately stepped up to make sure that it was made clear that nothing would change. And now that downloading from non-sanctioned sources is made illegal there will possibly be prosecution of individuals or renewed efforts to block certain websites. And on top of that all the copy levy will most likely continue to exist.
If there were any balance in this I'd be happy about it.
Re: Netherlands bans illegal downloading
#33When will the world catch up with the fact that The Netherlands is not more the liberal country it once was? The boringness of Denmark combined with the social problems of the UK, that's where it's heading.
As well as a migrant population whose extremist religious observance tests the patience of the long-standing Dutch tolerance and liberal values.
Let's not forget that the tension is in large part because of institutional discrimination against those (religious) minorities.
Re: Netherlands bans illegal downloading
#34Quite a funny headline. Maybe someone should think about issuing a blanket ban of everything illegal? ;-)
No, we don't want that. A while ago there was even a headline here that boils down to 'Illegality will not be punishable'.
This was about people residing in the country illegally. Everyone understands the headline immediately, but it's still pretty ridiculous.
Re: Netherlands bans illegal downloading
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think very little will change. A little background: The Netherlands has for a long time allowed for people to make a copy of media (video, music, but not software), for personal use. This included media you'd borrow from a library, for example, or even your neighbor. To compensate, carriers (optical media, flash memory and the like) are a bit more expensive because an additional fee (of several euros; height depend…
I'm pretty sure the 'home copy' law doesn't allow you to copy stuff from the library; these works still fall under copyright law, after all, and each of them has a big disclaimer in the front saying no part of it may be copied. The 'home copy' law is so you can create copies for your own use of material you bought yourself, as long as you keep it to yourself - things like transferring a CD to your mp3 player. Similar…
> I'm pretty sure the 'home copy' law doesn't allow you to copy stuff from the library
But it does. :)
It is explained here: http://www.iusmentis.com/auteursrecht/nl/thuiskopie/ but it is in Dutch. It states that: - You may make only a few copies but it's unspecified how many that is.
- The copy has to be for personal use
- You may make the copy for someone else, but this is not true for music
- You don't have to own the material you want to copy
- There are some exceptions, namely electronic databases (paper database are allowed), physical structures (no copying other buildings please!) and computer software
Re: Netherlands bans illegal downloading
#36Quite staggering how a non-elected instance can make major decisions for an entire country. Just like that.
Isn't that how courts work in most countries? Major decisions get passed down all the time by courts. Legislation thrown out, new legislation ordered. The only difference here is that it's a European court rather than a national court.
Re: Netherlands bans illegal downloading
#37This is not specific to The Netherlands, it holds for all EU member states that did not already have laws declaring downloading of copyrighted material illegal.
The case for Germany is kind of weird, though: downloading is illegal, but streaming is not (or, to be more precise, it's the streaming service's job to make sure they don't host illegal content[1]). So essentially I'm not allowed to download a movie, but I'm allowed to load it in my browser and watch it later. However! If I copy the file from the browser's cache to another directory, then that's again illegal. I fin…
Just keeps all your movies in the cache folder :D
Re: Netherlands bans illegal downloading
#38When will the world catch up with the fact that The Netherlands is not more the liberal country it once was? The boringness of Denmark combined with the social problems of the UK, that's where it's heading.
So illegal downloading is a "liberal" thing really?; if someone has been hurted by it is indie labels and film-makers for whom realizing an artistic vision was once at least a bit profitable. Not the big fish who still can make money producing shallow generic crap for the masses and can take the damage of a huge statistical slice that doesn't pay for it.
Re: Netherlands bans illegal downloading
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> in the Netherlands one cannot be punished for being illegal here This doesn't make sense as a sentence. Surely the Netherlands has a justice system and prisons, and surely those people in prison are there because they were convicted of doing something illegal. So it stands that you can and will be punished in the Netherlands for doing something illegal.
wsc981 made an unfortunate language error / directly translated a Dutch expression to english; 'being illegal' in his example translates to living in the Netherlands as an illegal immigrant, which, while 'illegal', is not actually enforced as a crime.
Not be picky or anything. What precisely is the language error? I read the sentence and understood the meaning conveyed.
Re: Netherlands bans illegal downloading
#40When will the world catch up with the fact that The Netherlands is not more the liberal country it once was? The boringness of Denmark combined with the social problems of the UK, that's where it's heading.
As well as a migrant population whose extremist religious observance tests the patience of the long-standing Dutch tolerance and liberal values.
In places with the most migrants (Amsterdam), the long-standing Dutch tolerance and liberal values aren't at risk or being tested.
Areas with nearly no migrants and no long-standing tolerance or liberal values continue to have no migrants and no tolerance or liberalism.
A few very poor areas with poor populations continue to suck for both 'migrants' and 'native Dutch', as they always have. Both sides and a few opportunist populists overplay these areas. This situation would exist if the 'migrants' were Muslim, Catholics, or Rastafarians, because it really isn't about values, but instead economics and racism.