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

theverge.com

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

#921

Post by ionised »

eli wrote: post #575
DanBC wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> GDPR [...] were intended to hurt American tech giants. GDPR builds on previous EU privacy regulation, some of which has existed long before the US tech giants. Here's the Council of Europe's Convention number 108, introduced in 1981. https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventio... Hesse, Germany,introduced data protection law in 1970. Sweden introduced national law in 1973. Germany in 1977 and Franc…

That it was built on previous regulations doesn't necessarily disprove that the GDPR was intended to target Facebook & Google.

Nothing proves that it was targeted at them either.

This opinion only ever seems voiced by Americans offended that their darling tech megacorps be subjected to any law or regulation that isn't American.

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

#922

Post by ionised »

darpa_escapee wrote: post #598
h91wka wrote: post #489

This is wrong on more levels than it seems from the first glance: 1) I've witnessed creeping internet censorship starting just like this: first it's something as innocuous as "let's protect creators" or "let's protect children from harmful content", then 6 years later you can't criticize the government. They've just created a legal framework for massive automated censorship, and also Overton window was moved. I expec…

This is just how Western societies are sold China-style censorship and surveillance.

No, western societies get spied on by their own governments because terrorists hate our freedom, or some other such nonsense.

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

#923

Post by logicchains »

codetrotter wrote: post #895
bcheung wrote: post #778

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also a form of control. "There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."

> There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. I guess it’s true that some people in positions of power view themselves as rules over others, but I always thought that most people here in the western world held the view that the government exists to serve the people, not the other way around. I…

But if this process like most things has diminishing returns, then wouldn't after a while government use up all the "easy wins", leaving only things to do that have a mix of good benefits and bad side effects. And once the best of these things were done, the remaining options would be more and more "bad side effects" and less and less "good benefits".

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

#924

Post by vidarh »

jexah wrote: post #899
hef19898 wrote: post #874

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do have free speech in the EU, claming otherwise would indicate that the European countries are no democracies. While the extent of free speech might vary from country to country, denying it is there goes way to far. Sure, there are limitations to it, e.g. denying the Holocaust or using Nazi symbols in Germany, and with regards to defamation. But otherwise just about any opinion can be voiced freely. Thid doesn't…

What you are describing is a merged set of other named rights, such as Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Association, etc. The US (as far as I am aware) is the only country in the world with the Right to Free Speech. Free being the keyword here, "unconstrained". Free Speech doesn't mean having the right to say bad things about the government. It means having the right to say anything you want.

You don't have the right to say anything you want in the US either. Free speech is full of exceptions in US law as well, starting with the most obvious example of "shouting fire in a crowded theater" [1] (though the original decision the phrase refers to had nothing to do with someone shouting "fire"...) In other words: speech that would be likely to incite imminent lawless action.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouting_fire_in_a_crowded_the...

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

#925

Post by i6mi6 »

Please just stop justifying those politicians by saying that "they have no idea how the internet works". They understand it perfectly fine. EU is going into an iron curtain and this law is just for conveniently putting people into jail whenever they decide. They won't of course chase after every "offensive" content, but only the one that poses a threat to them. For reference Tommy Robinson.

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

#926

Post by CaptainZapp »

int_19h wrote: post #915
alfredallan wrote: post #868

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Reddit on the topic of Donald Trump is an example. 2. Forcing social media firms to delete specific kinds of content is another (albeit controversial) example. 3. Redacting all info about Saudi involvement in the 9-11 reports is a great example of censorship under the pretext of national security. 4. The SESTA/FOSTA bills are a recent (but again somewhat controversial) example. 5. Plenty of movies have been censor…

Classifying government documents is not censorship, since it's not government suppressing anyone's speech. It's strictly a transparency issue. All of your other examples involve private censorship (which can be rephrased as "people and companies exercising their property rights and freedom of association"), not government censorship.

What?

"4. The SESTA/FOSTA bills are a recent (but again somewhat controversial) example."

Where exactly is that private censorship?

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

#927

Post by ionised »

chatmasta wrote: post #59

Is there anything good about this law? Is there any logical, coherent argument for what benefit it might provide to anyone?

The same tired bullshit that publishers trot out every time they push copyright enforcement responsibilities onto companies, governments and the tax payer:

"Won't somebody think of the creators!"

And they have pushed this kind of crap on us relentlessly for decades.

Neglecting to mention they absolute shafting these obsolete middlemen of cultural access give to the artists and creators they sign.

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

#928

Post by feanaro »

zaarn wrote: post #648
dmix wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't need to drag you to court. They fine you using the new EU law, then you refuse to pay and you essentially decide to go to court instead of paying. Even if the company decides to drop the complaint in response either way you have to put a significant amount of effort to get to that point. Merely because you got an email at night. This could happen 100x (or even thousands) for any mid-sized content platform.…

>Merely because you got an email at night. As mentioned multiple times, if they did this the judge would simply deny the entire fine and suit and they'd have to pay you damages and they'd likely receive a cease&desist order from the court. You must inform parties of violations and allow for adequate time to react to them. Sending an email is already a nono for legal notices as there is no guarantee that the other par…

How about we just don't allow this law to be enacted in the first place and save ourselves all this trouble?

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

#929

Post by sharemywin »

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…

Does the link tax only apply to the interenet? what about scientific papers? are you required to pay when you reference other material?

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

#930

Post by rocqua »

logifail wrote: post #371
rocqua wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> MEP are some of the most successful politicians, they would be Olympic level is it was a sport. I don't think so. I think MEPs are much closer to members of a state-congress in the US than member of congress. With the equivalent of a member of the US congress being a member of some national parliament. My criterium here is how fierce the campaign is to get elected. At the very least here in the Netherlands, the cam…

>> MEPs are much closer to members of a state-congress in the US than member of congress What's the salary and expenses package like in a state congress? "[..] expense payments of €4,416 per month are given to MEPs as a lump sum in addition to their regular pre-tax monthly salary of €8,611. They are not required to provide any proof of how the money is spent" sources: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/about-meps.…

To be Olympic-level says something about how well you compete, not how well you get compensated.

The fact that MEP compensation is so good, whilst public scrutiny on who gets seats is so lax is even worse.

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