Slashdot Mirror
DMCA-Alikes Sweep Europe
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."
The number of European countries enacting their ignorance..
No, it is not ignorance, it is Corporate Control. And don't fool yourself, both left and right alike are controlled by corporations, in almost every country.
Consensual sex is boring.
Don't forget it's mostly because of the US (and US companies) pressuring Europe into their legislation.
read up on it. there will come a time when your petty national law will be overridden by the unelected, unaccountable wto... and then the dmca might look good.
2 1337 4 u!
One of the main reasons that the DMCA has caused so little controversy in mainstream American society (no, Slashdot is not mainstream) is that the conventional media has pretty much refused to cover it.
I'm just curious but have any Slashdot readers from Germany, Austria, Denmark, Greece, or Italy noticed any significant coverage in the media of these euro-DMCA laws? Also, what does the local reaction seem to be? Do most people know enough about the issues to care?
http://yetanotherpoliticalrant.blogspot.com
In the end it doesn't matter whether this or that member state of the EU adopts the law. Three years after the directive is adopted it is justiciable in the European Court of Justice and states which haven't implemented it in domestic law can be taken to court and their domestic courts have to follow the precedent set by the ECJ.
Does this really surprise anyone? Most people don't care about the issues in general, much less this one. Those who do care, and try to be vocal about it are simply paid no attention to by our governments, no matter what the nationality. We're slowly losing the ability to control what we do with our technology, our knowledge, and our lives. I keep waiting for something to give, for that final straw where more than just a few of us stand up and say 'No More!' but it hasn't happened. I fear it won't happen in my life time.
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
[article]"6.1 Makes it illegal to circumvent a protection measure. Note that there is no requirement to show that the person who does the circumvention did it in order to infringe copyright law. Circumventing for the sake of making a copy of a music file you have bought in order to listen to it on your portable MP3 player is just as illegal as circumventing in order to put the music on Napster."
whats the point of creating technology that plays compressed music files to enable us to carry around loads of our (paid for) music in a small package if they make it illegal. the whole idea was to make it easy to listen to all of my CD's anywhere without a huge CD wallet bulging at the seams. the napster phenomenon was a different issue totaly, but now it's twisting MP3's from the beautiful thing they were, to a taboo that can land you in jail.
it's not the technology's fault, it's the users fault. guns don't kill people, people kill people - right? well, MP3 players don't steal MP3's. if i can no longer rip MY CD's and upload them to MY player without pissing off some litigator somewhere, then -- F*#% the bozos.
This is a wake up call all you Europe fan-boys who piss and moan about the United States:
There's no safe-haven in the world from this type of B.S., face it. America ain't so bad.
You've got that backwards. This is fodder for people who piss and moan about the united states. These type of laws were pioneered in the US, and it is (to a large degree) US interests that have helped to push these laws overseas.
The US has, in the past, threatened to walk out of international talks because other participants refused to consider the implementation of DMCA-esque laws.
We (the USA) produce most of the world's copyrighted material, and we give out billions of dollars each year to other countries for free. If we want them to pass a law that favors us, they will all do it. They have little choice. If we decide applejuice needs to be outlawed, we'll get (via bribes and threats) every country in the world to outlaw it. What the US wants, it gets. As an American, I'm not sure how I feel about that. Were we wanting rational things, I suppose I'd be somewhat happy and maybe even a bit proud (in an egocentric sorta way).
Anyway, that's all this is. Sorta like drug laws. We want it to be illegal, so we'll pay for everyone else to make it illegal. End of story.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
Looking at the comments that have been posted so far, most appear to be around the "America vs Europe" contest that is ongoing on Slashdot, or "Who do we blame for this?" along with the usually lame trolls.
/. after all...
How about instead, people put some thought into the possibilities of beating some sort of system and what the actual outcome of such regulation would be? There are a lot of clever people in this community and occasionally it's nice to hear what one of them has to say.
1. Will it just be the large coporates who put out DRM protecred media meaing that people who do not get the share of the consumers wallet.
2. Is this going to be like prohibition in the '20s where speakeasy joints for music trading spring up around the world.
3. How practical is it to build an encrypted freenet or something entirely separate from the regular 'Internet' which would allow a sort haven from this type of legislation?
4. Will we just end up as a fractional online society where certain geographical areas of the world (Far East, emerging African states) continue to pump out copies by the ton?
Anyone care to put in a serious comment?
Nah! This is
This is more or less a flamebait of the most transparent form. Mode me troll if you wish, but moderator, most of the time on slashdot I see post on how EU has less liberty than US because of free pseech law. And now that ? Get real. This isn't funny at ALL. Even with a bad humor you should not find this flame bait funny.
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The EU Copyright Directive is not the only worry. EU is also considering IPR Enforcement Directive which would add even more DMCA-like protections to technical measures. IPR Enforcement Directive would also introduce a "conviction of shame": if you are found guilty of rights infringment you must publish the judgement in a publication chosen by the rights owner at your own cost. See a statement by Electronic Frontier Finland on the proposed directive.
(For what it is worth, the Finnish parliament did not pass the national implementation of the EU Copyright Directive.)
I'd say they learned all too well from our experience with the DMCA. Our opinion of the DMCA means nothing to those in power, nor to those pushing for DMCA-like laws. I know it will come as a big surprise, but none of the copyright holders nor politicians have been intimidated by a bunch of whiners on /.
This is exactly what the copyright holders want, and is exactly what the copyright holders' donations bought them.
When I read and discuss this here, I'm unable to imagine how the DMCA and its ilk continue getting support. But then I leave my house and talk to ordinary people, and they have no idea what the DMCA is nor how it impacts them. And, amazingly, if they do know they usually parrot some of the "pirating is bad" BS they hear in the press.
You'll be surprised, but millions will probably actually be intimidated by the upcoming prosecutions by the RIAA of individuals downloading music, and they will stop. Remember, these are the same Average Joes that believe Microsoft can track their email and Bill Gates will send them thousands of dollars for forwarding chain letters.
I just had the greatest idea. The law states that you get up to nine months in prison for violation, right?
Okay, everyone in Germany needs to turn themselves in for... oh, say, copying a CD that had some sort of protection on it. I can't wait to see the innovations they come up with for storing five million new pale and obese felons.
Even tech literate Aussies don't seem to know this, but we already adopted our own DMCA-alike.
See here for details.
Yeah, criticise aepervius's poor spelling. Let him know how badly it "suxx".
Apart from the US spelling of "humor" the only mispelt word in his entire post is the typo of "speech". Granted, his grammar might not be perfect but, as English most probably isn't his first language, that's excusable.
I'd like to see your French, German or Spanish grammar stand up to a rigorous inspection but I doubt that you're able to speak any foreign languages at all.
Stop being a petty little man and grow up.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
MP3 players are popular in Germany, particularly now for cars (MP3/CD) where the compression means you don't need large and inconvenient changers.
Bertelsmann are big though and control distribution rights for both souznd and video products in Germany. They have been lobbying for the implementation of this rule.
However, the real problem is that it is an EU directive. Unless countries can prove a get out under subsidiarity, they must implement the directives or risk a large fine.
The other problem is the multi-region DVD players on sale. This will certainly stop under this technical measures clause. Shame for all those people who want to look at non-region 2 DVDs, for example that large immigrant population from the former Soviet Union.
See my journal, I write things there
The one thing about the Berlesconi incident (another publisher with alleged crooked links) is that it did prove that there is some life in the Parliament.
See my journal, I write things there
Between 21% and 40% for the majority of the population. Maybe not insanely low, but not insanely high.
communist health care
The right to free health care is a bad thing?
no right to bear arms
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"
This is not necessarily the right to private ownership of arms - it can be argued this is the right for the state to have an armed militia (normally called an Army!). Not everyone views gun ownership as a good thing anyway.
forced conscription
National Service dropped in 1962 I believe.
unbelievable regulation of motor vehicles and communications
I am informed by friends in California that vehicles over here would be regulated off the roads there. Communications is as open as in the US.
rampant trade protectionism
No more and no less than in the US. That's why there are regular "trade wars" between US and European industries - you protect yours, we protect ours...
and now europe's getting its own DMCA
Sadly it looks like this may be the case. But guess which nation much of the lobbying is coming from.
My brother predicted this, about 4 years back. Essentially, he said that America had been the vanguard (note the past-perfect tense) of justice; this made American business more profitable, and meant that if other countries wanted to keep up, they had to have some reasonable fraction of the same kind of justice.
But as our ignoring the constitution accelerated, it became clear that American justice was not functioning properly, and American business immediately began to hurt. So my brother saw that this was going to happen [remember, 4 years ago we were still in the boom], and predicted that we would see petty dictatorships rise everywhere. Indeed, it happens.
Oh, well. It is indeed a sad day. Europe had the chance to become the leader of justice, and indeed when Lithuania was considering entering, I considered it more of an advantage than a disadvantage, provided that there was good will.
After all, more free trade is better than less free trade. More natural rights is better than more granted rights. Better for the economy, better for the human condition, better, even, for morality.
It seemed there was more of all that. Now I begin to wonder.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
Yes, they do. Because they claim to be protesting 'against globalization', which is such a wishy washy phrase, no wonder nobody listens to them. Now they have a list of damn good reasons to hate the WTO, maybe they could start producing some when asked by journalists.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
No question the US government companies have backed such legislation. But there are many large European companies that also back this legislation. To blame the US and only the US is naive. Take for example one of the world's biggest media companies, Vivendi-Universal, its a French company. Or Murdoch and his media conglomerate, he's an Australian...
Seen from the side that even a "suspected violation" can get you fined, the Germans have just proven they follow some 60 year old traditions again.
And with German lawyers very triggerhappy to send out cease-and-desist letters, it won't get any better. Luckily, we don't have any of this crap one country south yet.
Let's face it; there is no "them or us". /anything/ it is showing people of different backgrounds that we're pretty much alike. I, like you undoubtedly, have met people from all over the world, chatted with them a bit, and wondered where all there "misunderstandings" like that cold-war came from, since they're not that different from me.
/want/ to be different, we aren't all that different at all.
,person to person ,and have a normal conversation about just about everything. Sure there would be disagreement, but that's ok, but I think there would also be alot of things we would agree on, since it's a lot harder to severely dislike a person then an objectified country and everything it supposedly stands for.
If internet has done
What gives birth to these "misunderstandings" is "them or us" thinking. It breeds fear, and promotes the wrong kind of people into power.
If slashdot shows anything, it's that there are "likeminded" people in almost every country in the world. Some more agreeable, some less, but all in all it shows, that no matter how much we
Perhaps one day the ideal of a global village will become truth, a village where everyone realizes that everybody is somebodies direct neightbour, and there is no such thing as "our" freedom, or "their" freedom, but only freedom of "the people". If such a thing ever is to happen, it's seeds are sown now, where you can converse with people all over the planet, and see for yourself that you can like someone in Taiwan even better then your real life neighbour.
To see this idea bloom is the main reason for free speech and digital freedom, and is far more important then copying some music and the (loss of) riches associated with that.
I write this as a fervent anti-USA fanboy, because I don't like what your country does (promote horrid fast-food chains, promote dumb commercial television/channels, spread the belief that once you have a lot of money it doesn't matter how you got it, and overpromoted godawfull pop-music). But never be mistaken that you (if you're an american) and I could sit down
If your somewhat Free software inclined, I would probably agree more with you then one of my fellow countrymen, who wouldn't know eroding freedom if it jumped up and bit him in the ass.
All this "them or us" thinking leads to one thing, and that's FUD on a national level. Only when a large part of the populations are capable of thinking and making decisions for themselves, and will not buy into demonization of other countries (I'm not talking about *BSD evangelisation here), will true freedom for all be feasible.
So next time when a headline tells about eroding freedoms, don't think "well, at least it's not 'us' that have to worry about that, let 'them' worry", ultimately it's 'our' freedom it's about, whether you like it our not.
And always remember,
"Bad facts make bad laws"
er... oops.
In the just concluded free trade negotiations between the US and Singapore, one of the sticking points (pun shamelessly lifted from countless news reports) was the so-called "Wrigley Clause":- the legalisation of sale of gum on "medical" grounds. Singapore, paranoid about its sparkingly clean and efficient subway doors getting stuck with bubble gum, had earlier banned the sale of gum in the island. (Note that it was always sale of gum, not gum per se; import of gum for personal consumption was never banned.)
Now, the ban, IMHO, is as short-sighted as it gets, but it was Singapore's choice, Singaporeans can ban whatever they want. Curiously enough, it turned out to be a stumbling block in the negotiations, which, apparently led to this creative loophole of "medically-sanctioned" gum. I mean, when was the last time a doctor prescribed bubble gum for you?
Then again, to put it in the larger perspective, Singapore lately has begun trying to loosen itself up in earnest, what with other restrictions being eased. Also, to clarify my position, I'm all for free trade; for sure, cities like Singapore, which have historically been entrepots, can only gain from FTA's.
But let's underscore a key subtext in all of this:- for all you know, this could very well be a dramatic demonstration of corporate America's lobbying power.
More than mere navel gazing.
due to the eu the next world war (or should it now be called a 'civil war') will take place. i`m guessing within the next 2 decades. seeing as when a country joins the eu they're going to be bound by a constitution meaning they cannot EVER leave the eu. which means the eu can only break apart when either ALL countries agree (not gunna happen) or if there's a war, which there will be.
the eu is a big dictatorship in the making, they're taking over countries with a "one size fits all" attitude, with disreguard for national identity, suddenly everyone is "european" not "german", "french" or "belgian" etc.
the eu should be one thing, a free-trade market. that's what these countries signed up for, and suddenly they're being told they're going to be one big federal state like the US. they're making the EU into a single country through the back door.
every couple of days i see a new law being passed or proposed by the eu which restricts peoples rights, it's the exact opposite of the US - the us was for freedom for the ppl, the EU is freedom for the politicians.
you only have to look at the laws proposed by the EU to see how bad it is, regardless of whether or not they're passed, the fact that EU politicians want to have a common foreign policy etc shows just how disgusting this is.
the norwegians aren't being pushed into cos they have a source of finance, same with lichenstein, i think switzerland along with great britain aren't swallowing their shit.
this will end in tears, it will end in a war, maybe before then it'll end in a US - EU cold-war II situation.
WTF is a sig?
Well, let's see it Europeans.
I was really hoping you were right.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Do you know that the DMCA is the result of a treaty passed by the WIPO (itself a cousin of WTO)? When you see people, protesting in the streets to end the WTO treaties -- THE DMCA IS JUST ONE UNDEMOCRATIC, ANTI-CITIZEN products of the WTO!!
/. ive posted this link, and other bits that let people know exactly where the DMCA is coming from -- no one seems to put two and two together.
/., who dont support overbearing copyright law, do you realize, that the people who are protesting in the streets -- the world over -- against the WTO are on your side ? This /. crowd, being very in-tune with IP and Technology are just one small group, angry and frustrated with the DMCA. The DMCA is a PRODUCT of un-democratic bodies like the WTO -- literally funded by massive multi-nationals -- who are re-writing international relations in order to entrench their power. The DMCA is just ONE MINOR aspect of this effort.
For all the times on
Please read below:anti-dmca.org/faq_local.html
For the Pro-public domain crowd at
The USA's corrupt, plutocratic government is only partly responsible for the DMCA, in reality, they have empowered the bureaucracy to take their weight and allow it to be wielded by the Lobbyists and Lawyers of International Capitalists.
It doesnt matter if you think Im a crazed (i am not) anti-capitalist (i am), the reality is that Corporate Bodies are very literally writing international treaties, that are later enforced in the domestically in the USA, Canada, Australia, EU etc etc etc. The WTO is staffed / funded by the International Plutocrats... * THEY * are responsible for the DMCA -- your corrupt Congress is only an after-thought in the DMCA effort.. and all the rest.
I've had enough of draconian legislation that infringes on my rights online. I'm moving to Europe!
Oh...wait...
There's no sig like this sig anywhere near this sig, so this must be the sig.
From the very beginning, the EU has been about the creation of a single market and the removal of internal barriers against the circulation of people, goods, services, and capital. So if a good is legally in the EU, it is free to move anywhere within the EU without any restriction.
What will happen with DVDs? Manufacturers of DVD players are supposed to sell their products only in the area covered by the applicable region code. The same goes for the disks themselves. Thus manufacturers will try to prevent the free circulation of goods (DVD and players) between the Baltic countries and the other members, because these countries are in another DVD region.
Isn't that likely to render the DVD region coding scheme simply illegal under the EU internal market rules, since it amounts to voluntary fragmentation of EU markets? And if so, won't the circumvention of the region code, illegal under the EUCD, be authorised because the region coding itself would be illegal?