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

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811–820 of 1001 posts

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

#811

As terrible as this is, I am actually even more shocked by this proposal: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/12/europe-to-push-for-one-hou... Having one hour to remove offending content, draconian fines and no, absolutely no exceptions for small content providers would, I think, end the internet as we know it in Europe. I see no way to host any kind of content under such jurisdiction and surely all non European content p…

They will never stop asking for more power to police the use of their imaginary property. They'd push for mandatory deletion of copies inside people's brains if that was possible.

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

#812
post #797

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 5c here. Maybe they just don't have much to do, so they need to justify their salaries, and they need to have some presence in the WWW to let us know that they are out there.

Hmmm. I'm not so sure. The EU parliament is usually pretty savvy on civil rights and freedom issues like this. I'm genuinely surprised that this law passed. However, it's hard to fathom the EU parliament sometimes because it's such a broad and diverse bunch of people and interests forced into such a small political space. If someone asked me to play devils advocate for this decision, I'd probably appeal to people's f…

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

#813

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This can have a chilling affect on content creation, and thus the dissemination of ideas. YouTube will have to create a filter that covers their liability. They might be able to automate, but it depends on the jurisdiction. For example, the US has fair use laws. A person may copy a segment of a copyrighted work to comment on it. There are territories in the EU where they can't. How does YouTube filter this? If the ne…

And of course, say you negotiated a license with some other content creator that says you can use their work in yours. How can YouTube check that?

They can't and flag and take down your video until you prove it. The burden is on the uploader not the distributor. Which we know how Youtube is with that...

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

#814

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 n…

News articles are written with the understanding that the reader could stop reading at any time so information is put as early as possible. This applies especially to the title which is used as the very first filter for user interest. Requiring rewriting titles is a bad idea as you are never in an automated fashion going to make a better title. As an example note that this very website heavily prefers the original ti…

> Requiring rewriting titles is a bad idea as you are never in an automated fashion going to make a better title.

Depends on how you define "better".

I would argue that a rewritten title you can read is "better" than an un-rewritten title you can't read because the site couldn't "link" it without risking a lawsuit or signing an agreement.

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

#815

>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…

> The only thing this will do is entrench massive players like Google and Facebook

Incorrect.

It will also speed up development of a new web which is impossible to regulate. So I rejoice. When they block entire services for days, I cry in joy. A 10 days blackout is what we need...

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

#816

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everywhere has this phenomenon in some guise, it's only the US that's self absorbed enough to think it is unique.

That's essentially a religious argument. Please provide evidence for your claim.

Corporations exist

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

#817
post #739

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do these politicians really not understand the awful implications of these filtering systems for free speech and fair use? They believe what their wealthy donors tell them to believe. It won't affect the well connected politicians in any measurable way, they'll still be wealthy. Meanwhile, independent organizations will suffer while the big players get all the sweet licensing deals. Regulations are ALWAYS about pun…

Does the EU have a problem with wealthy donors? I've heard this criticism levelled against US politicians and it's justified, but in this case I think it might just be sheer ignorance on the part of the EU legislators.

Not in the same way as in the US, and I don't think campaign contributions are a thing, at least not at the same level as in the US.

But there are many, many lobbyists active in the EU, and some of them have a surprising amount of influence over politicians. There has even been a case where two different parties, independently from each other, introduced the exact same bill, which had been written by a lobbyist.

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

#818

>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…

> The only thing this will do is entrench massive players like Google and Facebook who already have these systems in place.

Not exactly. Small and micro platforms are excluded from directive’s scope.

From legislation: In particular, small and micro enterprises as defined in Title I of the Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC, should be expected to be subject to less burdensome obligations than larger service providers. Therefore, taking into account the state of the art and the availability of technologies and their costs, in specific cases it may not be proportionate to expect small and micro enterprises to apply preventive measures and that therefore in such cases these enterprises should only be expected to expeditiously remove specific unauthorised works and other subject matter upon notification by rightholders

As to what small is, Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC Article 2.2 states:

Within the SME category, a small enterprise is defined as an enterprise which employs fewer than 50 persons and whose annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 10 million

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

#819
post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you get dragged to court because you got the email at 1AM and you were asleep, then you're not guilty of anything Getting dragged to court is disruptive, unsettling and expensive.

And the other party will be found guilty of disrupting your business by having you get into court for complaints without legal grounds.

> the other party will be found guilty of disrupting your business by having you get into court for complaints without legal grounds.

Dubious. The other lawyer will claim they believed you had read the complaint and therefore that they were acting in good faith, and will see no punishment at all.

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

#820

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.

Niche yes, but mainstream (like mom and pop) refers to the ownership of the medium. And HN is owned by one of Silicon Valley's most powerful firms.
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