European Union Copyright Directive :: Possible Legislation affecting the internet

[horseUSA]

The EU Copyright Directive is considering updates to legislation regarding digital copyrights. Some of the wording proposed would be damaging to many internet sites (including this one) hosting user generated content and/or providing links to external content.
For a video describing some of the proposed articles:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYU77Qqvy-U


A Blog post by Wikimedia Foundation, the group which runs Wikipedia:

View: https://medium.com/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge/your-internet-is-under-threat-heres-why-you-should-care-about-european-copyright-reform-7eb6ff4cf321


TechCrunch Article:
Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the 'vibrant free web'

If you are in the EU please take a moment to review these proposed changes and if you wish voice your concern via:
#SaveYourInternet - Stop the #censorshipmachine
Fix copyright - Wikimedia Foundation

The actual legislation: EUR-Lex - 52016PC0593 - EN - EUR-Lex

br
-david

 

[at6]

Don't they ruin everything that they touch?

 

[Gnomey]

Certainly one to follow.

 

[Zipper730]

I would also suggest that you do the following

1. Share what's written to anybody who will listen
2. If you're in the E.U. contact your MEP as often as possible: Every day if you can
3. Get others to do steps 1 & 2

Upload filters would also make it impossible to take screen-caps and share them. There have been numerous cases when websites were taken down, only for somebody to take a screen-cap and reveal the truth.

Long message short: Saturation

 

[GrauGeist]

There's been several cases where someone was sharing live feed from an event on facebook and the music in the background triggered a copyright filter, landing them in trouble.

And I'm not talking about someone at a concert, but like at a car show for example, talking to a car's owner near a live music venue.

This copyright thing has gotten completely out of hand.

 

[vikingBerserker]

This is getting to the point of absurdity.......

 

[Zipper730]

This is getting to the point of absurdity.......

It's about controlling the flow of information so we are left in the dark like mushrooms.

 

[Tieleader]

What, politicians voting for laws/acts that "they don't fully understand" = $. That's new?
Here's looking forward to a bright "new" future of paper pulp books and the post office charging $5 a stamp for a letter that may or may-not get there!
(raises mushroom/mead beer in salute)
BTW I still love books...

 

[Dana Bell]

I'm in favor of some additional protections. There's nothing quite like researching a project for two years, writing it up, and then seeing EU member states scanning the whole thing and releasing it on websites for a nominal charge or "free" (if you've paid your membership). When that happens in the US, I've been able to get my books removed from those sites - Europe. Sharing always seems a good thing when you're sharing someone else's stuff....

The other issues do need to be resolved, but copyright protections need serious improvement.

Cheers,


Dana

 

[Zipper730]

I'm in favor of some additional protections.

The problem isn't that we're for people swiping others work: It's that we don't want censorship imposed on us (most all of us know somebody here who lives in the EU). There's also no rule to say this cannot expand elsewhere, such as the United States and Canada.

Many of the lobbying groups here are international in nature, governments and corporations also often work with each other for mutual gain. The problem with this is that it often ends up against working against the interests of the public.

 

[GrauGeist]

I'm in favor of some additional protections. There's nothing quite like researching a project for two years, writing it up, and then seeing EU member states scanning the whole thing and releasing it on websites for a nominal charge or "free" (if you've paid your membership). When that happens in the US, I've been able to get my books removed from those sites - Europe. Sharing always seems a good thing when you're sharing someone else's stuff....

The other issues do need to be resolved, but copyright protections need serious improvement.

Cheers,


Dana

While I don't have an argument towards protecting copyrighted material, such as complete works (either literary, musical or photographic), this law will also prohibit even quoting published works, which is a huge lart of debates here on the forums, as a debate often requires quoting specific information (again, quoting a portion, not copying and pasting entire works).

What the ultimate goal of the EU copyright law is, will be essentially to make users licensed in order to access content. And with that goal, backed by Article 11, a "snippet tax" will be levied on sites that even use a portion (or quote) of a copyrighted article, again, like exists everywhere on this site in the various threads. I should also mention that I have posted my own photos to this site (which have embedded copyright info in the files), but technically, under the proposed copyright law, members of this site would have to be licensed in order to view them.

Clearly, this would mean the end of smaller websites, as they cannot afford the required file scanning servers as well as the fees and taxes. Larger sites will be able to afford the nessecary hardware, but this additional cost will have to be passed on to end-users in order to stay solvent.

The issue goes far beyond what I've covered, but in the end, the goal is to literally turn the internet into a licensed revenue generator and that's not acceptable.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Nicely said!

 

[Dana Bell]

Hi GrayGeist and Zipper,

I agree - which is why I wrote, "The other issues do need to be resolved, but copyright protections need serious improvement." However, the current copyright protections are non-existent on the internet. I've contacted several EU internet sites about having my material removed, only to hear crickets. There's no one to report them to - I'm hoping the new rules will fix that part of it...

Cheers,


Dana

 

[Tieleader]

The first few pebbles are starting to slide down the slippery slope...

 

[GrauGeist]

Hi GrayGeist and Zipper,

I agree - which is why I wrote, "The other issues do need to be resolved, but copyright protections need serious improvement." However, the current copyright protections are non-existent on the internet. I've contacted several EU internet sites about having my material removed, only to hear crickets. There's no one to report them to - I'm hoping the new rules will fix that part of it...

Cheers,


Dana

But the question is, will this Copyright law be all encompasing, or will it focus mainly on the large copyright holders (i.e.: publishing house authors, professional musicians and their hungry lawyers, professional/portfolioed photographers, etc.)?
Also, I am curious about the fees, surcharges and taxes.
They go where? And to whom? And why?

 

[Dana Bell]

But the question is, will this Copyright law be all encompasing, or will it focus mainly on the large copyright holders (i.e.: publishing house authors, professional musicians and their hungry lawyers, professional/portfolioed photographers, etc.)?
Also, I am curious about the fees, surcharges and taxes.
They go where? And to whom? And why?

Hi GrauGeist,

Damned if I know. But what fees are we discussing? Tonight I found another company selling Kindle versions of one of my books - there is NO legal Kindle version of the book. They claim they are a site that gives authors a chance to publish their works on-line at a reasonable fee - but they have never been in contact with me OR the publisher.

I don't want these guys to be charged a fee - I want them shut down. I want them to spend the effort to guarantee that that what they publish is something they have the right to publish. I want them stopped, and this regulation is moving in that direction.

As for hungry lawyers, I'm too hungry to afford a lawyer...

As for everything else - I leave all those other issues to you...

Cheers,


Dana

 

[Barrett]

Thank you! Will forward widely because what happens Over There gives people ideas Over Here.

 

[Zipper730]

Thank you! Will forward widely because what happens Over There gives people ideas Over Here.

Yeah, I already mentioned that the lobbyists involved are international and could easily spread their handiwork over here.

 

[Argento]

...

 

[parsifal]

Its concerning that free speech might be stifled. Its a centuries old custom that scholars would publish their work to allow other scholars to use directly the work that the original person did.

it gets yucky when third parties are uploading simply to make money from others work or simply claim it for their own. I agree that there should be laws to protect against that, but the question is how do you do that and not interfere with the traditional sharing of ideas and information/

And I worry finally exactly how this massive change will affect us. I cannot help thinking that it bodes bad things for small fry like us.