Slashdot Mirror
Finland Drops EUCD For Now
replicant_deckard writes "Electronic Frontier Finland just got a huge legal victory. They report the local DMCA-copy (based on EU copyright directive) was dropped today at the parliament after heavy criticism. So far just two EU nations have accepted the innovation threatening law. Campaigns go on in different European states. They need your support!" cabra771 writes "The European Commission has put up a new proposal dealing with online music piracy that appears to have slightly upset a few people."
Hi!
:-D
:-D
Yeah. It was a very sweet victory indeed, especially because the content industry was very confident that the proposed law would pass.
Unfortunately this is only a temporary relieve, the war against fair use will continue very soon and long as EUCD exists we are on the losing side. Never the less, the situation is now much more hopefull in Finland, because the public knowledge is now much better and also because the MPs seem to understand how important these questions are.
Ville
There's more to DVD than just the sound quality/picture, there's the fact that it doesnt degrade like a tape, that you can pause/ff/rewind with perfect visual clarity, jumping to scenes, 'interactive' stuff, extras like director commentary. Most of the early adopters of DVD that I know of didn't pay much attention to the signal quality, but the other benefits.
Even so, DVD through a scan converter over coax is a visual improvement over VHS. And you can still get 5.1 audio into your stereo.
Besides, maybe the composite/svideo jack is already used on your TV by a video game or the VCR. So you want to svideo from DVD to VCR then to TV. And you dont want one of those stupid selector boxes - those things make your signal into shit.
Whether it's the optimal way to hook it up is besides the point. You should be able to, and the only reason you cant is because of some completely artificial bullshit.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
From the article:
The industry in a statement issued jointly by 10 organizations, including the Business Software Alliance (BSA), International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and Motion Picture Association (MPA), blasted the proposal, calling it "inadequate" and "unambitious."
Funny, I never considered it a virtue for a government regulation to be "ambitious".
TheFrood
If you say "I'll probably get modded down for this..." then I will mod you down.
I think his original point is that not everyone has a TV with rca and/or svideo inputs (myself included).
There's no big sticker on the dvdplayer box that says "you can't plug this into a vcr." This, to a lot of consumers (especially the technically inept ones) is considered deceiving.
If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten. -George Carlin
The fact that only two member states have passed this into domestic law could well be a BAD thing, because the directive is now enforcible at the European Court of Justice. They may make a repressive ruling that will then automatically apply to all member states. For those from the US think of it this way - all the states have agreed to implement a law within two years - only two have done, but someone goes to the Supreme Court and seeks a ruling - that's where we are right now.
Owww! My Brain hurts! This it TGIF, this is America!
No, actually, this is Europe...
What does this crap have to do with me?
All this crap was explicitly designed to make you realize the world is much more than the US of A.
The point they are upset about is that the file sharing services are targeted, and not the users of those services.
They're complaining that the users themselves aren't punished for it - only the service.
Of course, I don't think they share our viewpoint.
These stories celebrating delays or apparent abandonment of 'EUCD copies' in the EU and EEA member states, most recently Finland, are probably about celebrating too soon, unfortunately.
The arrangements in Europe are that member states have an obligation to implement EU directives. If member-state governments drag their feet beyond the patience of the European Commission, there is now more than one way for the Commission to put a financial sting on them. The threat of open-ended financial liability may be one of the important drivers for implementing EUCD in the member-states in spite of any campaigning. This is particularly remembered in the UK, which got badly stung financially for taking unilateral action on fishing rights. So, for example, the few-months delay to about the end of March recently announced by the UK Patent Office (for review of the consultation replies, and for completing and amending the UK draft implementing regulations) will probably not be easy to stretch out much farther than that.
The real legislative power in these matters is with the EU Commission, which deliberates in secret. How this appalling state of things came to be is another matter, but the time to lobby effectively is the stage _before_ a directive issues from the EU Commission --- at the stage after it has been made a fait accompli, it is really too late. It's too late now to do much about EUCD in its current form except to mount marginal delaying tactics, and to be vigilant in campaigning so that the member states don't change their local copies in the direction of making matters even worse -- which is what the UK's draft local copy that went out for limited consultation in 2002 would have done. I suppose there is always some faint chance to try and get the Commission to reconsider/repeal the directive, but that looks like a tough and long haul.
No, courts only enforce the law. That is what the concept of separation of powers is about. No court in any democratic country "make the law" - that right is exclusively in the hand of the legislative (parliament, or similar). Some courts have pretty wide powers in interpreting the law, but only within the context of the legal doctrine of the country in question and taking past precedence into account.
The DMCA was written to protect the interests of data distributors. The whole idea is to prevent the cost-negating distribution network called the Internet from affecting the cost of distributing data which has enjoyed high cost (fat profit margin) CD[ incl. CDROM] and DVD distribution. The cost of CD and DVD distribution is paid to an industry of distributors. They are middlemen whose economic niche has been proven obsolete by the Internet. Since artists and producers do not need them for distribution, they are playing their other card: revenue agregators. That function serves the artist/producer end of the data economy.
Admittedly, a revenue model which pays the artists and producers for their work without involving the traditional distributors hasn't emerged. The distributors are not so confident, so they are seeking protection like tariffs. This is an age old issue rearing its ugly head in a new place, and we will eventually solve it the way we always do: the middlemen buy their policymakers and get their policy.
In the US, the distributors dominate the world market for movies, music, and any other software. In the EU, the distributors and the artists and producers from which they distribute software are worldwide underdogs by sheer revenue. Neither the distributors nor the artists and producers in the EU will gain if they support a scheme that allows the gargantuan US companies to dictate the terms of their business.The DMCA could give US media distributors the leverage they need to control the EU market.
What the US distributors fear is that the next Beatles will emigrate from the US to the EU where the DMCA allows the artists to dictate more of the business, and gives them access to more of the end-consumer's money...if such an economy were to pop up in the EU...
--- Nothing clever here: move along now...