European Parliament approves copyright bill slammed by digital rights groups
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I suppose it's better for Europe to be doing this sort of stuff than what they spent the last few centuries doing. I just hope they don't drag the US into their digital dramas the way they kept doing with their wars.
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Does it in fact say 'automated systems'? Or is that just your sensible reading of the document?
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Basically, a wide range of people involved in the news, music and film _business_, from big company CEO to relatively unknown but _professional_ artists.
They're all blinded by the fear of losing their job and can't see the facts.
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The MPAA and similar ilk already treats ALL their customers as pirates - how long until the technology becomes available for them to require a memory wipe immediately after viewing their "IP" ?
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Ha, here in France the State PAYS Disney to publish "Le journal de Mickey" (half a million € per year). Source: Le monde, the titles are listed in the linked downloadable pdf file https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/ar ... 55770.html
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If someone starts a US-based video sharing site that complies with US law and doesn't solicit European customers, they might be able to get away with ignoring there new rights in Europe. So in practice, the effect might be less to squelch innovation overall than to drive innovative companies in these sectors out of Europe.
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Good. Let them do it. I fully believe in the concept of giving people all the rope they demand to hang themselves. The popular sites could take a stand and just block everyone from the EU, but they won't because $$$. Google would sooner stop indexing local media sites than pay each and every one of them, and as we've seen a few times now, deindexed sites die from obscurity and start begging Google for reinstatement.
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That’s a story about a private registrar voluntarily handing over a domain in response to a French court order of questionable enforceability. It’s not about a federal judge in the northern district of California telling new-Facebook they have to pay Belarus’ link tax.
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Yeah, I suspect the way to make clear how stupid this is to turn it on it's head: Google News should charge news organizations to include links to their stories. See how they like that.
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Garbage neoliberal corporate protectionism.
What we need is an internet of copyleft. Most these corps use software that's under GPL but then they use that open software to publish restricted works?!
What we need is an internet of copyleft. Most these corps use software that's under GPL but then they use that open software to publish restricted works?!
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That same sort of extortionate behavior could easily be replicated against associated entities with European presences. I'm not certain that the EU will find a way to force this down the throat of other parts of the world, but I'm also not certain they can't.
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Considering the number of websites that have abandoned European users post-GDPR, wouldn't this only serve to exacerbate that fragmentation as companies cease to do business to avoid liability? Since non-European entities make up the majority of popular services at this time, I can't see continental alternatives meeting local demand quickly enough (who is going to have the money to EuroGoogle?).
Additionally, it looks like to qualify as a medium, small, or micro-business, there are also turnover/balance sheet thresholds. But, under the employee-side of the exemption, what I can't see is how contractors would be treated. They would be working on behalf of the enterprise, but they aren't subordinated and deemed employees under national law. Additionally, there is an exemption for apprentices, which I take to mean interns. I suppose you could follow the American model and go heavy on those two categories.
Additionally, it looks like to qualify as a medium, small, or micro-business, there are also turnover/balance sheet thresholds. But, under the employee-side of the exemption, what I can't see is how contractors would be treated. They would be working on behalf of the enterprise, but they aren't subordinated and deemed employees under national law. Additionally, there is an exemption for apprentices, which I take to mean interns. I suppose you could follow the American model and go heavy on those two categories.
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Yeah, but Google&Co at this point have much more muscle than copyright interests. It would be a complete no go.
American companies might do rather well off of Europe, though. They'll have more traffic redirected to them, and VPN services to the US might become the norm (the UK might enjoy a similar windfall). What are they supposed to do anyway? Ban Google, or YouTube? Good luck with that.
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Never underestimate the authoritarian tendencies of bureaucrats on the take.
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Yeah, that’s my sense as well. But I’m not sure why a company would even have to care about whether or not they solicit European customers. They’re not going to want to put offices or infrastructure in Europe, but I don’t see how a European country could gain an ability to collect against US (for example) assets just because there are European customers.
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I hate to lacquer your bubble, but it's life plus 70 years...
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A lot of websites have blocked EU users but they don't make much revenue from EU and it would cost them more to implement EU GDPR compliance than to block the users.
On the other hand, Google, Facebook, et all while they are not EU companies they derive about 1/3 of their revenue from EU. They will rather comply than risk that revenue.
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It's life + 70 until the next time it's extended. Which it will be.
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There is zilch chance EU can collect anything against an US company.
But EU (member states) can easily block EU banks and companies from doing business with a particular US company.
That is the one and only leverage EU holds.
For someone like Google, Facebook, etc that is a lot of revenue lost.
For many other US companies, it's irrelevant.
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Here's irony.
Copyright started over there, and were laws preventing people from printing.
Then it was changed, giving a temporary monopoly on works before going to the public.
Now it seems the EU is going back to its roots.
It didn't work out the first time. What the hell is the matter with those people who think it'll work this time.
I don't even want to know because nothing justifies this ridiculous ruling. Nothing.
Copyright started over there, and were laws preventing people from printing.
Then it was changed, giving a temporary monopoly on works before going to the public.
Now it seems the EU is going back to its roots.
It didn't work out the first time. What the hell is the matter with those people who think it'll work this time.
I don't even want to know because nothing justifies this ridiculous ruling. Nothing.
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Well that's just lovely. Given all that has happened in regards to deregulation of ISP's over here, I'd still say this is far more damaging to a "free and open internet".
VPN's will be the only beneficiaries of this.
VPN's will be the only beneficiaries of this.
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No doubt Disney is currently devising a way to spin this into a need to extend Mickey Mouse's copyright for another eon.
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And with the EU there is no recourse. There is no way to hold them accountable, there are no elections or reporting back to countries.
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Great they do know that there is this thing called a sorting function? You know sorting where you can go by date or say relevance, or say price of link paid by Google in ascending order.
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It all makes sense now: NordVPN is behind all this!
Seriously, I've been seeing ads on TV for their service. No other VPN would bother with buying TV ad space, and their's is considered the gold standard (outside of rolling your own, but that's its own thing).
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Is this the same EU that always goes woe is me and how they're being left behind in the digital economy? Perhaps some self-reflection is in order.
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My crystal ball tells me there is currently approx. just over 5 years left until the next extension.
Hint: Steamboat Willie is currently scheduled to enter the public domain on 1st January 2024. You and me we both know there is no way in hell that's going to happen.
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I don't know if it's the gold standard. I have it, and it can be kind of wack at times.
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I would go further, charge per article listed, since now you have operating overheads due to having to check to compliance with EU law in each one.
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I think it's a mistake to think of the Internet being "free". All content everywhere costs someone time and effort to create it. Some people are sufficiently well funded / doing it as a hobby to be able to give it away for free. Others are trying to make a living from it. Regardless, someone has gone to some lengths to create it. It is free only in the sense that you've not had to pay for it, but not in the sense of what it cost to put it there. That's quite an important thing to remember.
I think it is quite interesting that companies like Google are complaining about it whilst being the ones getting fat of the back of other people's effort, by being the monopolist search gateway between the lazy punters who don't know what a bookmark is and content.
I don't think that'll stop - there's always free content the owner of which will sacrifice everything to get attention - but the quality of that free content might plummet. Google News and similar scrapers could become the home for extremist / fake news, whilst the "normal" stuff is accessible only through paywalls or by buying an actual newspaper. Humanity being what it is, one fears for the future of sane elections, social attitudes, etc.
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Oh, they listened to their constituents, all right. The music industry, the motion picture industry...
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Except in a paper you have to print the material, allocate it part of your valuable page space, prepare and edit and format it and finally distribute it, whereas in online platforms the content can be uploaded automatically... totally not the same?
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So in theory if i want to post this article to facebook i should get a license ? This is getting ridiculous....
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My crystal ball tells me there is currently approx. just over 5 years left until the next extension.
Hint: Steamboat Willie is currently scheduled to enter the public domain on 1st January 2024. You and me we both know there is no way in hell that's going to happen.
Of course it's not going to happen... who the hell has the original release of Steamboat Willie ready to digitize? Hopefully the Library of Congress.
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They were talking about free as in freedom (libre), not free as in beer (gratis).
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But they're not land owners, they're more like parking ramp or road owners.
Parking ramp owners are not liable for all sorts of shit. Car breakins and things like that.
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Citizens should search any EU/EC website that allows comments/participation, and flood it with copyrighted links (to this very same article, for example), and let them have to moderate it. It's totally bonkers!
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One thing I don't get as a user of Bing/Google News user.. How the hell is it suppose to work that I end up on your site, without Google?
When a breaking story happens, there isn't an obvious source that I can go for every story. Each situation is actually different and chances are I would never land on your page without Google's assistance. How often do I check abcnews? Never, but once in awhile Google will send me there. Who is this other user type?
When a breaking story happens, there isn't an obvious source that I can go for every story. Each situation is actually different and chances are I would never land on your page without Google's assistance. How often do I check abcnews? Never, but once in awhile Google will send me there. Who is this other user type?
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The provision that grants sports organizations ownership of works created without their knowledge or instigation is going to be interesting since the Berne Convention gives ownership of videos and images to the person who created them. The new law will have to override this international copyright treaty that was created in Europe to enforce the European take on copyright.
That provision simply violates the existing international copyright agreements. Even the US with all the flaws in their copyright law does not automatically grant ownership of copyright to parties not involved in creation of the work. (US does limit use of licensed marks and images, but that does not transfer the copyright to the owner of the mark)
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