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DMCA, Auf Deutsch
Kavau continues: "The law does not directly prohibit the fabrication of private copies, but it offers the copyright holder the right to do just that. And we probably can expect the majority of copyright holders to make use of this right. The law simply takes away what US citizens would call the consumer's right to fair use. An exception is made for schools and research institutes, which may provide excerpts of copyrighted media to a group students or researchers.
One of the most important maxims of European law is "in dubio pro reo" (if in doubt, rule in favor of the defendant). While this principle applies to the judicature, and we are talking about the legislature here, the new law nevertheless seems to have perverted this principle: it treats every computer owner as a potential copyright pirate. Thank you, government, for the trust you are showing in your citizens! What's next? Special taxes on pen and paper? Note also that we are likely going to see similar laws in other European countries soon. The law follows guidelines imposed by the European Union in 2001."
Cool another case of the wrold gone mad. So once again I can't copy something I bought for my own private use. What about making a backup of a CD? So basically this is covering everything that can make copies of sounds and then play them back. Prehaps its time we outlawed parrots :)
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
... but it starts to smell likes you have to go to beyond the ex iron curtain to get some liberty on your privat stuff (like back up every single of your soft *which* I do after loosing 2 cd to accident) or loosing public domain or everything. We really seems to go into the Corporantism at outrance where we human cease to have rights except obying what the corporation comes up with sicne they hold or nearly hold the hands of the law.
And before you starts speaking of alternative, let me snort a big time and ask you if those alternative are for the big public or only a few hacker resistant.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
How are people supposed to circumvent copyright laws using cell phones? :)
Wait.. you probably shouldn't tell me, it might be illegal.
But what does a German Law have anything to do whatsover with MY Rights Online?
You people do realize not everybody in this world has the same rights, right?
But what does a US Law have anything to do whatsover with MY Rights Online?
You do realize not everybody in this world is boud to US rights, right?
IMHO, the real battle is going on in the US. If we win here, than the other countries will fall like dominos - and ease copy restrictions across the board, if we loose here then there is no way in hell any other country is going to have the strength to hold out.
Therefore, if you are from outside the USA - I recommend paying attention to what goes on here 1st. Copyrights are very quickly becoming unenforceable without draconian measures, with trillions at stake, for each side, I wouldn't be supprised if all hell's about to break loose.
With a pencil, I have been able to render some pretty good copies of art work in the past. With a typewriter, I can neatly copy an tire book... or more depending on how much time I can devote to it. For that matter, I can use the same pencil I used to duplicate the copyrighted artwork found on "whatever" commercial product out there.
Okay, yeah, I'm preaching to the choir. I don't believe these IP owners are losing money... and I don't believe they will increase their flow by screwing people via the government using taxes.
And where that is concerned, I can't understand how it can be both ways!!
Either (A) criminalize the act of copying or (B) legalize and tax the act of copying. You can't do both! (Okay, they can do both, but it's kind wrong though.)
I can't understand how we can be taxed for "potentential criminal activity."
Under ancient (and not-so-ancient) Arabic law, you steal, and you get your hand chopped off.
Under new American/EU policy, you get your hand chopped off so that you can't steal.
And *who* has the brutal regime here?
Then I think about how, here in the USA(TM), it is illegal to drink under the age of 21, illegal to have sex under the age of 17 (most states) and illegal to smoke pot. Yet these events happen every day, all the time, easily and freely. At least for us geeks that manage to get out of the house a few days a week! :)
So I ask myself, "Self! What is harder to stop the distribution of: a physical, smelly, heavy shippment of pot, or an mp3?" And then I realize that NOTHING can stop me from enjoying my music where and when I want. If the USA(TM) government can't stop the Crack and the Pot, how can they stop mp3's, an invisible, intangible, almost instantly transferable commodity?
They can't.
Die Frage ist doch eher, ob die Möglichkeit des Kopierens ein finanzieller Verlust für die Content-Produzenten ist. Ich muss ja z.B. auch Mehrabgaben für Drucker bezahlen, wenn ich nur meine eigenen Urlaubsfotos drucke, genau wie ich jetzt schon GEZ-Gebühren bezahlen muss, weil ich einen Fernseher habe, auch wenn ich keine Antenne habe und nur Videos gucke.
Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.
Looks like. And I always thought "poor Americans, there goes their freedom". Gotta change my European attitude.
So the only place where we are safe for now on is in some 3rd world countries where they just have bigger problems than "piracy", maybe even real pirates with eyecaps and everything. Who knows *g*.
But why am I joking? It's just sad. We need a scheme in which musicians/actors/writers can make money without selling CDs/DVDs,.../books. Or a change in mind in which "star"/manager != millionaire
But I suppose that won't be anywhere in my lifespan.
"Be careful or be roadkill" - Calvin
As a historian once told me - history is a story of visionaries and reactionaries. The visionaries create the new future, and the reactionaries try to block those changes and keep the status quo. Here one might say, the USA is the visionary and old-Europe is the reactionary. The US is constantly changing, and growing, where Europe is trying to maintain the world super power status they once had. Another example, visionary currency traders figured out how to call a nations "bluff" (eg when when HK artifically peged their currency to the dollar) reactioaries grouped their currences together into a single large one (the Euro, but notice how the two strongest Euopean economies passed). When visionary leadership in the US went to route out a ruthless dictator who terrorists could possibly get deadly weapons from, reactionaries desperately tried to block it every step of the way. Visionary programmers figured out how to share music on the internet, reactionary media industries sought to counter it. Visionary companies figured out how to make money from free software, reactionaries are trying to impose the DMCA. Visionary students in the the US now consider it the norm to freely share music, reactionaries are suing for billions.
Sadly, I would say Euope multi-lateralism is more about being reactionary than not.
...we still can't wait to see X-Men XVII, The Matrix Reloaded Again and Again, Armageddon III, Terminator XV, et. al.
We still put money in their pockets, the same money they use to buy these legislators.
What is wrong with us?
"and imposes special taxes on virtually any device that can potentially be used for copyright circumvention"
:) Cheap online content is the way ahead.
Well surely if the people are being taxed for copyright circumvention, then they are basically saying that people have the right to break copyrights since they have been taxed for it. Or as I suspect its more a case of having the cake and eating it. i.e. the media companies have lobbied that this is the right thing to do, so now they have a guaranteed revenue stream (the tax) as well as the over charged prices for CDs and Games.
The companies need to learn how to sell their produce to the digital age savvy customer, and this is not the right way to go
It would be interesting to see if anyone could make a test case out of that concept "you taxed me for copyright circumvention (which I had no intention of doing anyway), so since you have taxed me for it, I will go ahead and circumvent. You are sueing me? No no, I've paid my tax." etc.,
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Another anonymous coward