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E.U. Commission Suggests Permissive Copyright Rule
An anonymous reader submits "ITworld.com is reporting: 'The European Commission on Thursday presented a draft directive that punishes copyright infringement for commercial purposes, but leaves the home music downloader untouched, infuriating the entertainment industry.'"
But they still want to stop all P2P.
Ok, let's all move to Europe :)
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
This sounds fair but I hope the Europeans aren't harbouring any weapons, because if they are, it's only a matter of time before big business whispers in the ear of the military. Next thing you know we've got UN weapons inspectors who can't find anything but have the harshest of 'suspicions' about what the Europenans are planning to do the the God-fearing, fun-loving, democratic nation of the USA.
Seriously, this will not sit well with American companies. It will not be allowed.
I just gotta ask. What was wrong with the old copyright law that needs changing so bad?
Learn it. Know it. Be it.
We will stop exporting Britney Spears CDs as of now. See how ya like that!
Oh wait...
This is familiar... see here:
old news
Didn't we have a war to get away from Europe?
Copyright infringement still comes under CIVIL law, the record companies can sue if they want.
This is only about EU law, which is eventually enforced by national police forces. i.e. its criminal law.
So all the EU are saying is that for it to be a crime under national law there has to be a commercial gain behind the copyright infringement.
The normal copyright CIVIL laws are still there exactly as before.
This is quite reasonable. If the guys ripping off their stuff for profit, the police can intervene, if hes making copies for his friends, they have to take him to court.
It appears as though they would be mutualy exclusive, which is definetly a good thing. Any Europeans who follow these things know for sure.
At any right sweet if it passes, but it is still only a draft and the Media Groups will be lobying hard for changes so one can only hope it remains unscathed.
37 - what does it stand for really...
I don't know that much about how the EU works, but IIRC it isn't exactly as directly democratic as the member nations.
Which would mean no expensive campaigns, which would make it much more difficult to bribe.
Personally, I doubt this law would ever pass, I'm so used to the ever-increasing authoritarianism in our government that liberalization just seems impossible to me.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
The FAQ proposed on the site of the European commission does provide much more information than the linked article...
FAQ on proposed directive
Great! The Europeans are sensible about all of this. Downloading music off of the internet is no different than recording music off of the radio and digitizing it. All music is just sound waves anyway.
I think that anyone that resells copyrighted material deserves whatever the content mafia deems possible.
If the content cartel would just ease up about suing all of their potential customers, they wouldnt have a problem with piracy. Each industry has its own issues to deal with.
Software. Makes $80 billion dollars, loses $12 billion on piracy.
Software activation and antipiracy stuff (MICROSOFT AND QUICKEN) are a hassle to customers. They have to justify their existence in the face of open sourced competition.
Movies. Makes a couple of billion dollars (I'm guessing maybe more), loses millions to crappy divx screeners and stuff. People are buying $20 DVDs buy the handful, renting DVD's for $4, and going to movies for $7 a whole hell of a lot! I find it hard to belive their claims about piracy when they are making money hand over fist. Given to head in the sand syndrome when they didnt allow Linux Users to have a version of DVD viewing software. If a bunch of programmers can make their own OS, then decoding DVDs must be trivially easy (Especially when Xing leaves a key around in plain sight--- geniuses). Region Coding is just a sham. Stop now and youll sell more movies. Go digital in projection screens and stop whining about costs to get movies out to justify delayed releases. Global simultaneous releases will do a lot to squashing piracy. Keep those DVD prices at $20 or less.
Music Industry. Must move away from selling CD's a lot. Must sell DRM-less digital download in the MP3, Mp4, or SHN format. Must convince stores like best buy to install kiosks that allow users to hook up iPods or Nomads to swipe credit cards and get albums for $2 (this reduces payoffs to teamsters and costs to get cds pressed and stuff), and singles for $0.10. It;d be a gold mine and I'd buy like crazy. In the meantime, stop suing your customers, stop peddling locked cds WITHOUT LABELING THEM, YOU DECEITFUL BASTARDS, and ease up on piracy. Lastly, dont pay broadcasters to play songs. Thats got you in a bigger bind than this. Oh, and get much more responsive to consumer tastes and demands. And never again sell a Britney Spears to the american public. Spears will be a porn star within 5 years, as if Christina Aguilera isnt one.
If the music industry doesnt serve its customers, it will become irrelevant. Why do you think that your devoted mouthpiece and IT whipping bitch Hilary Rosen left your sorry excuse for an industry? You guys suck, and we are taking our money elsewhere.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Completely fair. Punish those with jail time or steep fines that profit from other's intellectual property (cds, movies, music, art). Yet leave the average joe who wishes to "sample" those to see if they themselves deem it worthy of a purchase.
IMHO the music industry could've saved itself. About 5 years ago, Target introduced Custom Compilation CD Burner Centers...IIRC Wherehouse had them too (except wherehouse you had to send away for it). Target allowed you to choose up to 12 songs and it'd burn it on the spot. I think it was $20. Well hell that would have worked if the big guns would've licensed they're music but it was just unpopular music or really old music so it never flew.
Sorry music industry but now your being punish for your own transgressions against the massess who once supported your livelihood. Hope that's some music to your ears. No more cha-ching-a-ling-a-ding for you.
It seems it's almost obligatory that any crime gets linked to terrorism now days
Whew! At least some politicians are showing intelligence.
US always tries to do the "Good Thing" but goes all backwards about it - ie during the War On Drugs they didn't focus enough on the source of the drugs, and too much on the "end-user", during the War On Terrorism, they are overthrowing political regimes(I'm not saying they shouldn't but thats the wrong way to go about it), while they should be cutting off the money supply to terrorism that flows from America itself. Now they do do some of the right stuff too, but primarily US politians loose focus too quickly.
Lets hope that EU will set a good example, by targeting the source of the disease instead of the symptoms.
Join the elite! Post at score:2! Ghostwheel is online.
In the US, the entire political system is based on money from corporations. As far as I understand, the EU isn't quite the same. Who are the companies bribing? Without money, there really is no way to 'put pressure' on anyone, so what's the tactic?
I'm sure most of the 'pressure' is coming from US companies, which begs the question, why does the EU care at all? Profits are only then to be made on selling the CDs and hosting concerts; Is there really all that much money coming through Europe to make it a big deal? In the US, every penny an artist or company makes is eventually going back into the economy, whether through buying a mansion in the Hills, or buying off a Senator. It's not like US artists are investing millions in real estate in England, and I don't think the politicians are quite so owned.
GL
I could say oh so much more about how many music files I have, how much money I've put into my collection, how much time I've put into it, and how much I thoroughly enjoy it all. And then I could describe in grand detail how I would feel to have some outside party tell me I'm wrong. However, it would all boil down to the above statement. Dag-nabbit. :)
The press release is here (in various languages). Don't forget to read it, and the draft directive, in detail before entering into uninformed discussion based upon a possibly incorrect third-party news article.
Mentioned in this article.
This law sounds like it's consumer-friendly, perhaps creating some much-needed balance, but it really isn't. In fact, it's a broad expansion of current law that's bad for everyone that uses any kind of p2p, for legitimate reasons or otherwise.
Copyright infringement would still be a civil crime so the content industries could still go after consumers on their own, just like they can now -- the proposed legislation would change criminal law. Also (obviously) the existing law covers copyright infringement for profit as copyright infringement for profit is still copyright infringement.
So what's the point of the new law? Read closely:
Peer-to-peer file-sharing services that encourage copyright infringement and make money from advertising are commercial, according to the Commission. "That is illegal and should be stopped," the Commission said. Examples of file sharing services are Kazaa and Morpheus.
Got it yet?
What they're saying: "Criminal sanctions only apply when copyright infringement is carried out intentionally and for commercial purposes."
What they want to dupe the public into hearing: "You can download all you want as long as no money is involved."
What they mean: "Copyright infringement through p2p services hurts the profits of companies that make large campaign contributions. P2P companies produce highly functional p2p software which has a primary function of facilitating copyright infringement because there is a financial incentive to do so (adware/spyware). This aspect of the p2p business can be used to legitimate government attacks in order to shut down those businesses."
What this means for you: Say goodbye to KaZaA and other useful (meaning large, meaning commercially-supported) networks.
Before conventional notions of "selling content" go back to where they belong, namely the rubbish bin. It's always been a rotten system, paying for art, corrupting both the artist and the viewer. The best entertainment and art are communal, created for those around you and rewarded by status and reputation. /., chatrooms, and autoporn, than they do from commercial media, is the day that the discussion becomes moot.
This is the way music and entertainment (story telling?) work in villages and it's only the urban lifestyle that's made it impossible.
It should be completely obvious that the large-scale entertainment industries are already dead, but they just don't know it. Copyright extensions... piracy laws... anti-copying technology... it's all just pissing into the river.
One example: did anyone seriously enjoy LOTRTT as much as they enjoyed the parodies of it? You see what I mean. The day when more people get their kicks from community-created content (CCCtm) like web logs,
I'm speaking from experience: I used to be a street drummer, and I can say that the kick from getting fifty random people to stop from their shopping on a sunny saturday afternoon and move their booty to insanely loud drumming beats any other form of fun except possibly (possibly) sex.
Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
From another board
"I wish I could record a day's work and then sell that recording over and over and over to anyone who needed that day's work done for them.
Before geeks invented sound recording, musicians sang for their supper.
Now technology has come full circle, and it's back to singing for their supper--and those pampered, bloated, overpaid Holyweird types are scared stiff they might have to work for a living!
And why not?
Technology has ruined the careers of other blue collar workers--now it's the turn of entertainers, who after all are nothing but another kind of blue collar worker."
Yeah, I suppose buying copies of Win XP for a buck or two in SE Asia gets some money to the Triads, but how is downloading an Win XP ISO from a P2P network making Osama any money?
I suppose when I installed Windows 2000 on two different machines caused some planes to smash into buildings.
--
Every time you download off a P2P network, God kills a kitten
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
Didn't we have a war to get away from Europe?
No. Many of you were kicked out, forcibly deported or fled persecution of one kind or another. The others for the most part didn't have to fight to go.
The "war" (rebellion would be more accurate) was to free yourselves from lawful authority and to avoid paying taxes, not to get away from Europe where (mostly) you weren't wanted anyway.
As an Irish H1B Visa holder in the US, and recalling the pain an expense the INS made me endure, I can assure you that any American trying to get into the EU will be made to SUFFER - and SUFFER BAD!!! (if I have anything todo with it - which I won't).
Jesus, copyright holders call the plan 'unambitious' As if ambition is a virtue while thinking up ways to take away people's rights.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Gimme a fucking break.
by a dis-interested populous
EU issues are rarely discussed on TV except on the minority news shows [i.e. the ones worth watching].
The EU parliament is seen as a bit of a gravy train for those serving. You never see your MEP in the news and I bet 90% if the people in the UK have no idea who their MEP is.
Big business is right in there, don't you worry. You'll do well to remember that the lovely people that bring us such tunes as All You Need is Love and Give Peace a Chance also help bring us such delights as the WE 177 tactical nuclear weapon and millions of the worlds landmines as well as a plethora of deadly devices.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Europe is the past
America is the present
China an India are the future
I have actually (Oh horror!) read the directive.
The directive does not legalise filesharing, or any other activity illegal under present copyright law. It deals solely with the enforcement of copyright law. A few highlights (or should i say lowlights?):
EU states must give anti-piracy alliances the right to apply for raids where they can seize infringing copies and related evidence. These raids can be granted without the presence or knowledge of the defendant, "in the event of an actually committed or imminent infringement"
It also demands that you must divulge information on the recievers and suppliers of "infringing goods" if you have yourself been pointed out as "a link in the network" of infringers.
Furthermore EU members must allow injunctions against "intermediar[ies] whose services are being used by a third party to infringe a right" (I wonder what exactly you'll have to do to prove that the resources you put the disposal of others will not be used for piracy...)
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
I believe that was the original intent of Copyright laws: To prevent you from making money of of work that was copyrighted. You could make a cassette tape of something off of the radio, and as long as you didn't try to sell it, you were fine. Same deal with using the VCR to tape something on TV. As long as you weren't making a profit off of your legally made copy, you were fine.
The RIAA member labels are just pissed because music downloading just means that they're not getting their cut. They've set insanely high prices for music CDs, and don't want to drop their prices to more reasonable levels (I'd have no problem laying down $7-10 for a CD, but $15-20 is asking a bit much). With the advent of the CD-R, the creation of a CD and the cost to do so was brought home to the consumer, and they realized that they were being gouged at the register. Until they bring the price of CDs down, file sharing will flourish. If prices are brought down to reasonable levels, then consumers would most likely download only to sample music they don't own yet, and then go out and buy the reasonably priced CD.
I know I would...
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
France is already pissed off at having to eat at Macdonellz and having to watch American movies. You mess with their oggs and LA gets vaporized, I tell you true.
Pretty much. Specifically, I thought it was to get away from taxation without representation; which, thanks to Brussels, we now have more than ever before!
-1 Troll would be appropriate. It's as if the author wanted to drive europeans crazy about America.
War doesn't prove who's right, just who's left.
This directive ensures copyright/trademark holders a minimum toolbox of legal attacks on copyright infringers. National law is explicitly left alone in so far it is "more favourable for right holders". It is clear that the industry is lobbying to make sure that copyrights are very strictly enforceable all across the EU along the way sneaking in injunctions against services used for infringement by "third parties".
The proposal may very well still be amended on its way through the Euro-parliament.
The EU countries already have laws in place for punishing copyright infringement. (And the copyright laws are also harmonised by directives) What's new is that the enforcement of these laws is harmonised.
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
..euh... I actually wanted to speak about modern Russia. The status quo there is that commercial use of copyrighted matherial is by default forbiden, but private and non-commercial use is not, at the condition that the copyright holder MAY always request the distributer to withdraw the copyrighted material and the distributer HAS to comply to the request or be charged in court.
This means that people are allowed to publish mp3s, books, video on the internet provided that they do not get any money from their publishing and that they have not been contacted by the copyright holder with the request to withdraw their copyrighted works
Sounds like the EU is getting to have the same idea of copyright.
-Kevin
40% of software in use worldwide is believed to be pirated, and 37% in the EU (= loss of revenue of 2.9 billion euros annually).(2)
Worldwide, 36% of all music CDs and cassettes sold are pirated (total sales of pirated goods is 5 billion units).
Can this be debunked?
The same should be asked of the numbers on p. 10 of the directive (pdf)
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
You can copy all you wan't, as long as you don't get caught.
Why steal when you can get great music for free??
Check out the best web site on the net for rocking cats
http://www.rathergood.com/punk_kittens/
This story has been done before -- in an earlier article. Granted it was an aside of that article, but it was mentioned in that article as an aside.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
How about tossing all the CD's into the Boston Harbor?
Last time we tried that, a little over 200 years ago, it made quite a statement thats talked about even to this day.
No, I am not trying to incite an online riot. A plain old riot will be fine.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
Madonna bought a mansion house in UK..
Britney Spears bought a house in London.
Almost any house big enough for big names to live in the UK costs millions.
Wow, they have a commission on everything.
I hereby solemnly swear that I will not commercially benefit from stealing goods from BB. I will use them for my personal use. Thank you. Suckers!
I always find that funny, Robbie wiliams who said P2P networks were great, got hammered for promoting "Drugs and Prostitution". WTF/
Anyhow, there are four systems,
1: The controled market (that the goverment loves)
2: The free market (the odd job on the side etc.. not taxed)
3: The black market (selling things that are illeagal)
4: and fraud.
So yeh, I like drugs... , I never quite understood pating for sex? maybe if it was a bit more kinky than your partner would do...
Do I give a fuck about the government.... umm..... nope.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Sure, but most of the EU are lackey states, with decrepit cohesion, sort of waiting for their next handout. Sort of like bums lying in the gutter.
Sort of like some American states, don't you think?
:)
Just kidding folks. This guy, of course, has no idea what he's babbling about.
XP downloads are all trojaned. Everyone who knows anything knows that.
That's 20 years ago. 20 years ago I paid 2 cents per kWH. Today it's 8 cents. That's 300% more. So I pay $15 for a CD. It's 100% more than what I paid 20 years ago, and hopefully it'll sound the same for 20 more (can't say the same for my LPs). Oh, don't even ask me about cable. $20 got me the works 20 years ago, including all the premium channels (Movie, HBO, Showtime). Today it gets me the least (2-29). Quit your complaining and get back to downloading, since you'd do it anyway, no matter what the CD price was (liar).
The great majority of small businesses in Europe (at leat south Europe) run windows without any licenses (i.e. pirate). Looks like these new moves are aimed at these people. This also explains the increase in BSA raids lately. Oviously all of this is an advantage to Open Source.
Yeah, but you can buy a russian judge with a pack of smokes and nylons. A chocolate bar for those tough-as-a-nut judges.
MPAA and RIAA won't be satisfied until any use that they haven't specifically licensed for is a crime that has stronger sanctions than armed robbery.
Rob a 7-11 with a gun and get 3-5 all of it waived for 1st time offenders.
Download a few albums and you should go to jail for 20 years and be liable for $20 million. Lets not get into DeCSS.
Shows you where our priorities are at.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
and to avoid paying taxes
Kind of ironic, considering how much we pay in taxes now...
Anyway, a large part of those taxes were taxes that were being levied only on the Colonies, and were designed to apparently put the colonies firmly in the pocket of a conglomerate of businessmen. Most of the taxes (like the tea tax, which led to the Boston Tea Party) were designed to force purchase of a "minimum amount" of English goods, so the owners of those companies could get much richer, without having to worry about any 'vocal opposition', as the colonies had no representation in the House of Lords or House of Commons. (You might recall "No taxation without representation". It doesn't mean that they were against all taxes. It's just that they wanted to have as equal a voice as any other citizen of England in the taxes that were being levied on them.)
The net result of the revolution was that the government that was to be formed was ostensibly to be different from the British one. Didn't succeed all that well though...
Kierthos
(Yes, yes, insightful, but off-topic as hell...)
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
mod parent up!!!
30 years ago, I paid $2400 for an Apple II computer (with a floppy drive). Albums sold for $4.
Today, I can get a computer with many orders of magnitude more speed and power for 1/5th of the price. And album prices are 400% higher.
Or we can play the game a different way.
30 years ago, to record an album took many musicians and many artists recording in a very expensive studio. Today, a handful of musicians and an inexpensive studio (i.e. a basement) can record the same music at a far cheaper price (not even considering inflation) using newer technology. CD's have a low defect rate. So since the production costs are lower it follows that CD prices are....higher?
Anway, what does this prove? Nothing. But at least my examples are more entertaining and completely disprove your example.
So anyway, with Clearwater controlling the majority of all music that you hear, and they only play the top 40 songs on all their stations, where exactly is the place for people to discover new music? I mean other than what the RIAA and Clearwater want you to hear?
Or is that an awkward question?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
The RIAA and such want governments to stiffen the rules against copyright infringement by individuals, but they don't offer to pay the costs. Maybe if they had to pay their share of the court's budgets and other law enforcement costs focused on this issue, then they might start to think about alternate ways to deliver their products that would make cheating on copyrights less rewarding than paying for better service.
You can buy your sister for a cigarette and your mom for a fraction of that.
In fact, based on that, I might be your father.
I just noticed that this story is mentioned within the other. I guess it was a dupe, after all.
The US government focused on the source of drugs as much as it was able without invading other countries outright.Columbia's government has been propped up by our money and military advisors for years, and have attacked their own people on our behalf, siezing labs, burning/spraing fields of peasant crops, and the like. These operations were not done by US forces, if only because the Columbians were eager to do it for us (and it's much more legal that way).
As for missing the money that flows out of America to terrorists, I believe you are underestimating the vast quantities of money that we give Muslim states in exchange for their oil; surely more of that money contributes to terrorism than "donations" from covert sympathizers on US soil. Let's also not forget the money that the US government gave Afghanis and Iraqis money and weapons.
So what I'm saying is that the US only says it's trying to do the Good Thing, when it really isn't at all. So why does the EU listen to us at all???
Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
just as soon as AT&T gives in and gives up the names of those criminals sharing albums over Kazaa.
That's supporting communism ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H er, terrorism, dontcha know?
From the EU doc: "Why is the proposed Directive necessary given that most so-called counterfeiters and pirates are merely trying to cater for public demand for goods at affordable prices?" So they accept this is just competition for a market, and thus they accept copyright holders are getting a protection. Copyright holders should say "thanks" and complain less. Or go with fully globalization, at all levels and aspects. :)
How about tossing all the CD's into the Boston Harbor?
I am not sure Boston Harbor needs anymore shit thrown into it..
What people in the US pay in taxes isn't even remotely close to what people in Europe pay, even(especially?) for the well-off. Their governments have had a lot more time/history to figure out new & creative ways to relieve their citizens of their money. US taxpayers just whine a lot more about it.
On the other hand, the average European citizen seems to be a little more content about the services that their governments provide for that money. Would US taxpayers whine so much if they thought they were getting decent value for their money (didn't see so much government waste)? Or are they really short sighted enough so that they're willing to let large chunks of society collapse to reduce their own personal taxes a little?
Disclaimer: I am a US citizen.
traditionally copyright law was no different to patent law - if someone infinged on your copyrights it was up to you to sue 'em.
IE copyright was traditionally only a part of civil laws.
Really the addition of copyright provisions to the criminal statutes is only relatively recent (post 1970?). All that's being suggested is that copright law should teturn to its traditional status in regards to infringment by individuals for personal reasons.
Even if this suggestion became law, record companies would still have the right to sue individual non-commercial copyright infringers in the civil courts
Maybe one way to make P2P legal in Germany, then, would be to have the two peers exchange friendly chat before initiating any file transfer. You could use XML to send messages like "You are my best friend." "ACK. You are my best best friend"
whaddya talking about? The level of taxation in the US is way lower than in Europe. Then again, in Europe it's spent on universal health coverage, unemployment benefits, retirement benefits, and free education. While in the US, it's used to build B-2 bombers and aircraft carriers while the lower fringe of the population goes uneducated, medically untreated, and even hungry.
nt
Ah, but the amount of taxation that caused the Revolution is tiny compared to current U.S. taxes. That was the point that I was trying to get across. (Apparently, I failed.)
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Yup. Far more convicts were sent to North America than were sent to Austrailia from Great Britain. A fact that most US historians seem to forget all to easilly.
"Or are they really short sighted enough so that they're willing to let large chunks of society collapse to reduce their own personal taxes a little?"
No, it is about choice - having some service being available thru Goverment ( and taxation) is nothing less than taking away my freedom of choice. Generally, in a healthy society, it should be my choice to either pay for something I deem to be usefull or not to pay.
It is not about "greed" , it is about freedom of choice.
Guess what, paying taxes for stuff like the Postal Service, fire, police, and health care is part of being a modern country. It's called "infrastructure" and if you want to be a part of the US, you had better contribute to it.
Acting like you are entitled to every cent that you make is a new and dangerous attitude in the US. Did not Benjamin Franklin say, "Death and Taxes"?
In the words of immigrants in a Firesign Theatre piece, "We were running away from poverty, injustice, the law, and the army."
I love those guys.
On a recent trip to Europe, getting in to Europe was shockingly easy. Getting back in the US was a pain though. Is the anal probe just an american thing?
Actually..
The taxes in the American colonies were roughly a twentieth of those in England, and were spent primarily on the defence of the colonies.
The Boston Tea Party was organised by smugglers,who were upset that duty had fallen, and their profitable smuggling trade was no longer viable.
The representation for the colonies in the House of Commons was as good as the representation of the average British Citizen in Liverpool or Manchester. Although that probably was more closely related to the main issue.
The House of Lords doesn't represent any specific area, so nobody is represented (except perhaps the church, and landed gentry).
Still, the basic point is correct. The people of the colonies felt that they should have their own local government determining taxation. A lesson learnt by the British Empire, allowing Great Britian to hang on to Australia and Canada simply by giving them their own assemblies.
I hate you. You are an idiot. Stupid jerkass tax loving cock muncher
That whenever someone says "nuff said", it never is?
The translation is "I have nothing to rebut your argument, so I'll argue that you're paranoid and say 'nuff said'".
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Wow, it amazes me that a government proposal can be so reasonable. Maybe they're finally learning.
If the government and the people would remember that copyright is a lease granted to the creator by the people (via the government), and that if it isn't fulfulling its goal of increasing invention and creativity then maybe it needs to be changed.
I'm not sure about all of the details but I believe that copyrights were granted to prevent publishers from taking advantage of the creators.
I don't believe that the intention was ever to prevent one person from "copying" and giving that copy to a couple of other people. Ie by hearing one person singing a song, and then they sing that song for other people.
I'd like to think that if you aren't propagating someone else's work for commercial gain, and if you attribute the source of the work to the best of your ability, then that should be enough for non-commercial sharing.
Once upon a time the very best musicians (and authors and artists) could barely scrape by economically on their art. Circumstances changed allowing them to easily capitalize on their art, and if circumstances change again so that they can't become mega-billionaires, well that's the way the world turns, my guess is that they will still do much better than their peers of a couple of hundred years ago.
So I'd actually like to see the copyright law changed to remove the copy control for non-commercial copies.
Probably because (a) there are too many of them; (b) they wouldn't have stumped up for Photoshop or Office anyway; (c) it's hard to track down where they live and collect evidence and (d) they haven't got enough money to make them worth suing.
Therefore it's much easier to go after businesses which have bigger bank accounts, a known location and, let's face it, if they're making a living using your product they really should have paid for it, shouldn't they? Shades of grey, but the BSA probably have the balance right in this case.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
30 years ago it was 5 and a half. Me, I got them for 3 and a quarter. And I ain't talking marching band LPs you old farts are into, but the acid-bending kinds.
Even if we Finns tend to think we're the best nation in EU, postponing DMCA-like law here isn't connected to EU rethinking it's copyright law.
I was listening to hard rock while your predecessors were running down your mom's legs in the back of a car.
Tes, records were $3.99 for top 25, $4.99 regularly. In fact, still own several hundred vinyl albums.
Finally, I still can kick your ass even though my ears are hairly.
England = Past
France = Way Past
Italy = Way Past
Germany = still wants poland no matter what they claim. Frickin nazis.
Spain = never was
Eastern Europe = never will be
Norway = bend over for the Nazis
Ireland = nice country, so cute.
Sweden = blondes with great tits. This is the best Europe has to offer.
Does that help?
3.25. 4.0. 5.0. 7.50. 15.0. Thanks for making my point, guys.
The piracy bastards killed Kenny's job! Where's my battle axe?!
>>and to avoid paying taxes
>Kind of ironic, considering how much we pay in taxes now...
You don't pay shit in taxes compared to Europe, so stop whining boy.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Silly EU guys, do y'all need a third rear-end kicking?
:)
1775 - 1783, we didn't like being part of England's silly little "empire" any more, so some farmers and lawyers got together and wiped the floor with the largest and best trained/equiped army of the time.
1812 - 1815, we got tired of England pestering our troops, so we once again beat the tar out of the largest and best trained/equiped army of the time.
1815 - Present, just to make sure y'all are finished pestering us, we built the largest, best trained, best equiped, most powerful army in the world, and then we built a shitload of nuclear weapons, just to make sure.
As the Declaration of Independence clear states - an authority is only lawful so long as those goverened by it consent to its authority. Having freed ourselves from the tyranny of a government we didn't consent to, we taxed ourselves so we could run a government we did consent to. It wasn't about getting away from Europe, it was about getting Europe away from us.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
Looks like someone forgot to pay their kickbacks this month.
There is enough time for the industry to lobby for tougher sanctions. The Commission's draft directive has to pass the European Parliament and the European Union's Council of Ministers before it is officially adopted.
Seems this isn't over yet...
No, you hit the 'undo' key.
speaking as an Englishman here, I really think you underestimate (read ignore) the help that the French gave you.
You wouldn't have won the war of Independence (at that time) without them. NOW SAY THANKYOU!!! (teehee).
You read Neal Fergusson. (I claim my five pounds etc).
btw. he got it wrong. the American's were rebelling against the three way trade scheme, it
indian tea -> Liverpool -> america = good
indian tea -> america = OUTRAGEOUS
I was trolling. See the sig:)
Okay, it wasn't a true troll, I just wanted to point out that a lot of the "facts" were more propoganda than historical fact. I didn't make any effort to check Fergusson's information. His research is interesting, but his conclusions are often a bit off. Still, I think he's more accurate than the standard story.
You make the assumption that all things will rise in price. I pointed out similar examples where prices should fall.
Your point is completely refuted.
I've done it over and over and over.
Thanks.
Note that complaining to Congress for new laws just makes the Executive branch's job harder, since they now have even more laws to attempt to enforce. [Note to Joe Public: the DMCA means the FBI is spending more time catching "MP3 pirates" and less time catching serial rapists and other unmentionables who flee across state lines.] Also note that creating new laws doesn't prevent determined criminals from breaking existing ones. If I shoot someone in cold blood, does it make a difference that I violated one law or 100? I didn't think so. If I'm going to download MP3s illegally, do you think the DMCA is going to stop me? I didn't think so.
As I see it, you're not going to stop copyright infringement without getting the FBI to engage in mass arrests. Of course, if you do, it will be a PR nightmare for you that you will never live down. Either way, you're in a great deal of trouble.
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
Rubbish!
With the pittance they pay most authors, creative works are a labor of love for the vast majority of authors. It's not for the meager royalty checks, and certainly not to pay the "promotional expenses" claimed by the publishers.
Actually we're all "entitled" to every cent we make after all you earned it not someone else.
On the other hand we're not entitled to everything for free, which is what a free loader wants. This is seperate from whether or not someone wants to pay taxes. If your going to pay for something though I imagine you would want to get the best value for your dollar, and most times that is not through government since the beaucratic overhead combined with outright theft is stifling.
Sure information wants to be free, but how much are you willing to pay for the packaging?
We did, it's called WWII.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
50 states, 59 billion average, that makes 3billion yanks, talk about imperialism!
Actually, any EU citizen has the automatic right to work in any EU country -- so an Italian citizen can come right on over to the UK, no problems. Hell, he can even come and claim unemployment benefit while looking for the job, get free health care, send his kids to school etc.
Basically, the only right that a UK citizen in the UK has over an Italian citizen is voting in general elections (EU citizens can vote in local & EU elections), plus being able to work in various security-sensitive areas such as defence.
As for Canadians... well, if you're young (I think under 30) you can come and work for 2 years. Not quite the same thing.
The author of this post asserts his moral rights.
Living in London, I pay 22% income tax plus a flat £500 ($700) per year in local government taxes.
Living in Boston, on the same income, I paid 27% in federal tax and 5% in state taxes. Plus medical insurance. Plus the liquor stores are closed on Sunday.