Slashdot Mirror
Eurorights Launched
LarsG writes: "Eurorights is an european open community effort similar to OpenLaw. The main goal is to provide a central european resource to gather information and craft legal arguments to make sure that the upcoming copyright directive in EU does not become a new DMCA." Best of luck. You've got an uphill battle in front of you.
What I mean is, suppose Belgium has a copyright term of twenty years from the date of publication. Then a work published in Spain in 1985 is copyright until 2005 in Belgium - even if Spanish copyright laws are different. The Belgian laws are not allowed to discriminate against foreign works (that would be some kind of trade barrier).
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
The trouble is, most of this stuff is decided by the European Commission - which is appointed, not elected - and its civil servants. A directly-elected Commission might help; or transferring more of its powers to the European Parliament; or transferring them downwards to elected national governments.
I don't really see the need for standardized European copyright law. It would be better to let each member state decide what laws were appropriate for its conditions. That would lead to better-quality, more friendly laws and competition between member states to make the best environment for business. All that the Commission would need to do is make sure that countries don't discriminate against copyrighted works created in other member states, treating them with exactly the same protection as those created at 'home'.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Although there's not mutch there yet. I urge every European (actually everybody) to subscribe to the mailing list.
Sorry about that. The directive has already been accepted by the EU Parliament, and from my understanding it will be hard to make wide-ranging amendments to the directive without public outcry. We're short on time, so we have to get started asap.
This is not necessarily because I share the RIAAs moral values, or microsofts ideas about business ethics, but for media, see above and for software, it could wreck my business and ultimately me.
This is an important point. Noone is seriously claming that piracy is good, or that creators should not be paid for their works. However, these laws and technical restrictions will kill fair use and give the publisher the power to control how we use works we buy.
To mention a few:
Your right to give or lend a book to someone.
Your right to watch your DVD movie on a laptop.
Your right to preserve and keep the books you buy.
Your right to record a tv broadcast.
If J.K.R wrote Windows: Puteulanus fenestra mortalis!
When you are up against organised cartels like that of Disney, Sony, MGM, Paramount, Fox, Universal, Warner, not to mention the host of other MegaCorps who have interests in usurious IP legislation, individuals (ie. natural persons) will not be heard. Face it the 'citizen' and democracy are redundant, only the MegaCorp and what is being marketed as "free trade" (as if they would tolerate a market that really was free!) matter anymore. Resistance is futile!
My, I'm in a negative mood tonight ... Umm, best of luck guys! It will be an uphill battle.
First for the record: I never downloaded an MP3 (too cumbersome, to expensive in Europe), I watch movies preferredly in theatres with a 250m2 screen and an outrageous sound system and each and every piece of software I use is licensed.
This is not necessarily because I share the RIAAs moral values, or microsofts ideas about business ethics, but for media, see above and for software, it could wreck my business and ultimately me.
But, the development we see in the US is frightening. Computers are driven either into totally dumbed down, copy control encrypted, AOL compliant Idiot Boxes (or might be rendered illegal as a copy protection circumvention device eventually), media, especially movies and music, are turned into a pay per view event, provided you have the properly licensed Idiot Box - or be prepared to learn an instrument if you want music (watch out for books soon to come) and the American courts (well, at least in DCMA related cases) appear to have lost every last single ounce of common sense.
What's even more frightening (and somewhat related) is the tendency to drive us more and more into content control. Your Idiot Box is soon to come with pre-installed censor-ware, or your ISP is forced to filter stuff deemed bad for kiddies or for our spiritual well being (and who the hell decided that anyway)!
In the US those changes came in somewhat at a sneeky pace and - with few exceptions - nobody actually realized the impact of those changes until some courts showed us with a vengeance what this actually means.
This is not to be allowed happening in Europe
Although, I have _some_ confidence, that European legislators and courts value the individual somewhat higher then the business entity, this can change mighty rapidly, given enough money for bribi^H^H^H^H^H lobbying purpose and has to be fought before we suddenly find our self on Times Square just after the Disney Corporation was there for "refurbishing".
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
...instead, it's a windy and involves getting the politicians to understand that there are people (citizens) who have opinions in technical matters. It's not just the corporations running the tech industry.
Keeping