DMCA-Alikes Sweep Europe

D4C5CE writes "The number of European countries enacting their ignorance of the sad experiences from Four Years under the DMCA has just risen to 5, as the Upper House (Bundesrat, incidentally) of the German Parliament on Friday failed to veto (sorry, some press releases are only available in heavily spin-doctored German Legalese at this point in time) and is hence considered to have consented to the adoption by the Lower House (Bundestag) of a federal law implementing the dreaded DMCA's European sibling known as EU Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC." Read on for more on the copyright laws being considered around the EU.

D4C5CE continues: "Earlier implementations have been reported from Austria, Denmark, Greece and Italy.
Legal scholars consider the directive itself an invalid "monstrosity", and the German law unconstitutional. In fact, this legislation is viewed as so terribly awful that even from the U.S., the EFF tried to prevent it in a rare intervention overseas.

Declaring that the circumvention rather than the use of Copy Protection is a Crime, the German parliament threatens to make things even worse by adopting a "second stage" with further steps to impose DRM and additional levies later this year, but unsurprisingly, all of the issues that DMCA-style laws have become notorious for are already there: Overbreadth, overprotection of technical measures, and Chilling Effects aplenty.

Record companies eagerly awaiting this "lex Bertelsmann" have already caused ISPs to send out warning letters to P2P users for alleged copyright infringement, and are expected to take legal action against individual users of file-sharing networks, following in the footsteps of RIAA.

Confirming the fears expressed by Alan Cox on Slashdot, computer gurus will soon find no place left to go even on the European side of the pond, and the Free-X "Independence Day" XBox exploit posted by one brave German just in time before this dismal day may well have been one of the very last legal disclosures in this part of the world as well."

Comments

Re:Oh well

[kauttapiste]

Where's your vaunted freedom now, mmm?

Hahaha, we have freedom still in 66.7% of EU!! How's that for freedom!

Amerika and 33.3% of EU suxx!

:-)

Re:I am sorry but how could this be modded funny ?

[The Bungi]

You may not like it, but it's true. Continue whining about it, but it's true. It may get modded down, but it's true. And your spelling suxx. You must be European.

Re:Please, grow up

[The Bungi]

Stop being a petty little man and grow up

I'll do that as soon as I stop seeing "I don't like what this guy is saying, so please mod him down" replies. It doesn't get any more petty and childish than that. Aside from the whining your friend aspervius (whatever) didn't provide a single valid point as to why my post was "flamebait". It just was, apparently.

And do me a favor and stop playing Super Dork - Defender Of The Lame Post. Thanks.

fuck them

[Leahar]

fuck the uk is on the list bastards oh well it may be unlawfull but so are drugs and underage drinking and everyone does them any way i'll be ingnoring it and do you realy think the police will give a flying fuck if i brake that rule still its a bitch i wont be able to get mod chips etc any more

if i could i would fucking move planet the human race aint all its cracked up to be

Re:The root cause ?

[JimFromJersey]

Your population is in decline. Your social welfare system is going bankrupt. Your native born population and native culture is being replaced with North Africans and their culture. Soon your vaunted cathedrals, castles, and museums will be abandoned, your EU constitution replaced by Sharia Law. As Islam imposes its ignorance your best and brightest will flee. Its over, we helped save you from the Germans and held the Soviet bear at bay. In the end; however, your own worst enemy was yourselves. Pink Floyd said it best "did you trade ... cold comfort for change, did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a leading role in a cage". You got comfortable, you lost your hunger, you lost your edge. Don't get me wrong, I am not at all happy about this, but that does not change the fact that it is over. As far as China is concerned, people said the same thing about Japan and look what happened. Also, China will never be a World player like Russia, France, UK, US. Why? Because they do not have the kind of global amibition that some western countries have. Why? Because they still view themselves as the middle kingdom, between heaven and earth, with all else being barbarity. Also, China is destined to go the way of the Soviet Union. India will be the dominant asian power by 2010. Having just glanced back at your comment, the part about the news of EU expansion. That is your critical failure, you only look at yesterday and today. It is tomorrow that is important, that is where America lives, it lives in tomorrow. Americans are criticized for not knowing their own history, I would posit that Americans know the difference between knowing their history and being tied to it.