EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’ • Hacker News Board

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

#711

Post by 0x5f3759df-i » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:12 PM UTC

>However, those backing these provisions say the arguments above are the result of scaremongering by big US tech companies, eager to keep control of the web’s biggest platforms.

This is the most hilarious quote in the article. The only thing this will do is entrench massive players like Google and Facebook who already have these systems in place. I honestly cannot comprehend how anyone could support this law while having any understanding of how the internet works. Do these politicians really not understand the awful implications of these filtering systems for free speech and fair use? Just look at the abuses that already happen with the existing systems and now we have to spread this across the entire web, absolutely insane.

A truly sad day for the future of a free internet in Europe.

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

#712

Post by messit » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:13 PM UTC

This feels just as stupid as the war on drugs. Another step back, especially for the poor as usual.

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

#713

Post by snaky » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:13 PM UTC

smsm42 wrote: post #698

snaky wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worse for YouTube the platform, the better for free, decentralized, federated competitor platforms like PeerTube.

No, that's not true. If the law mandated running content filtering system that costs $10M/year to run (in addition to any existing systems), then it'd be worse for YouTube, but they will survive. It would absolutely kill smaller providers dead.

Free, decentralized, federated competitor platforms are not small providers.

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

#714

Post by singularity2001 » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:13 PM UTC

gnulinux wrote: post #601

rrcaptain wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you joking? HN is owned by YCombinator, one of the most powerful companies in the Valley. If it's Mom and Pop, than so is Mitt Romney's hedgefund.

It's not about who the mom is, or whether she is a billionaire. HN is read mostly by tech workers, which is probably not more than 5% of US population and probably less than 1% of internet users. These numbers are out of my ass, but is there any indication that HN is mainstream media? HN is a niche media like my sister's blog.

relative niche maybe. your sisters blog? you must be joking (or Obama).

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

#715

Post by sieabah » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:14 PM UTC

0x5f3759df-i wrote: post #711

>However, those backing these provisions say the arguments above are the result of scaremongering by big US tech companies, eager to keep control of the web’s biggest platforms. This is the most hilarious quote in the article. The only thing this will do is entrench massive players like Google and Facebook who already have these systems in place. I honestly cannot comprehend how anyone could support this law while ha…

It's simple, the EU wants it's own internet like China. No more filthy US internet with talk about free speech and fair use.

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

#716

Post by sieabah » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:16 PM UTC

linuxftw wrote: post #670

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…

> This is an abhorrent decision by people who have no idea how the internet works. Same sad song as it ever was. Keep giving more control to the government and they'll keep ratcheting down the screws on you. An economic union should be about tariffs and the free movement of goods, not an entirely unelected bureaucratic federal government. Centralizing authority only benefits the well connected political class.

> Keep giving more control to the government and they'll keep ratcheting down the screws on you.

It's amazing that people never see this issue. Everyone needs to stop making bigger and bigger governments.

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

#717

Post by smsm42 » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:24 PM UTC

sircastor wrote: post #496

arendtio wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the web without user content... Web 1.0? So much for free speech.

Wasn't Web 1.0 only user content?

No, it was owner content. Of course, for some sites, like my personal Geocities page, the owner frequently was the sole user too, but the concepts of "one entity who owns the site builds the content" and "third parties visiting the site build the content" are different.

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

#718

Post by linuxftw » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:25 PM UTC

Joeri wrote: post #694

linuxftw wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is an abhorrent decision by people who have no idea how the internet works. Same sad song as it ever was. Keep giving more control to the government and they'll keep ratcheting down the screws on you. An economic union should be about tariffs and the free movement of goods, not an entirely unelected bureaucratic federal government. Centralizing authority only benefits the well connected political class.

An economic union should be about tariffs and the free movement of goods, not an entirely unelected bureaucratic federal government. The vote that occurred today was by the EU parliament, which is entirely elected. The directive was prepared inside the JURI committee, which also exists entirely out of elected representatives. Also, you can't have a single digital market without a single copyright regime. The economic…

I don't believe in copyright or patents, those are solely institutions of the government and primarily tools of the well connected political class.

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

#719

Post by bjelkeman-again » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:28 PM UTC

dannyobrien wrote: post #458

the6threplicant wrote: post #188

A comment from someone who has actually read the article: https://np.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/9ely8y/why_the_w... For example: ...the EFF argue that the idea of what constitutes a link is not fully defined. I'm not sure what they're talking about. Recitals 31-36 set out the concepts in article 11, fairly clearly. They make it clear that what is being protected is substantial or harmful copying of significant…

(Disclosure -- I work on this for EFF) You can read the recitals this commenter is describing here, including the latest amendments that were voted in the Parliamentary plenary. As you'd imagine, I disagree with his interpretation. https://juliareda.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Copyright_Se... Firstly, these are just recitals. They're not a binding part of the Directive, they just lay out the justifications for the…

> it's that if you use any text of an article, including its title, you can be sued or made to sign a license.

This seems a great place to use automated translation technology, but into the same language. Link to the news article, but rewrite it using a similar meaning, with different words.

(I am an EU citizen and I think this is major overreach by the legislator who thinks they are saving the newspapers, but have no clue as to what effect they will have on the current system, but it still will not save the papers.)

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

#720

Post by linuxftw » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:29 PM UTC

sixstringtheory wrote: post #697

linuxftw wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is an abhorrent decision by people who have no idea how the internet works. Same sad song as it ever was. Keep giving more control to the government and they'll keep ratcheting down the screws on you. An economic union should be about tariffs and the free movement of goods, not an entirely unelected bureaucratic federal government. Centralizing authority only benefits the well connected political class.

I agree with your sentiments, but couldn’t one argue that this is in fact an issue regarding goods/services/trade/economy? It’s not clear to me what would set this apart, just looking for more clarification.

Sure, but the only way to argue that is the premise that the the power of the government is unending and can grant itself more power as it sees fit.

Give the government power to take away your rights, that's indeed what it will do.