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

Not Ignorance

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Not Ignorance

[Halo1]

I completely agree with you. The FFII unfortunately didn't exist yet when this directive went through the European Parliament and there was (almost?) no organised lobbying or protest. Now the FFII does exist however and is actively working on preventing software patents from being legalised in Europe.

I personally went to the EP for 3 days last week and there really are an incredible amount of MEPs who did not have any idea at all about how bad the current proposal is and who became quite supportive of us after we explained the situation to them. Informing politicians is not the job of the media, but largely of their assistants. Informing the assistants is a job of lobbying groups and individuals.

If you don't contact any politicians or their assistants, you cannot expect them to hear your concerns (although it would be really nice, of course). They vote on about 60 dossiers per week in the EP, so they just don't have the time to go actively looking for information about each and every one of those. Each party has its own specialist for different subjects. The specialists from each faction then create a voting list together, which more often than not is followed blindly by the rest of the faction (since they don't know anything about the dossier).

This is obviously not an ideal situation, since those specialists often have an agenda to push. So informing as many politicians as possible about your point of view is indeed what is necessary. Some will refer you to their local specialist, but most certainly not all of them.

too far

[Fux the Pengiun]

WOW. This is too far even for me. I've posted several times on Slashdot in favor of limited DRM, simply out of concern for artists, but from the links the submitter provided, it's obvious the EU has gone too far. Check the "EU Copyright Directive Link".

Violation or suspected violation of international copyright may result in a fine of 2,000 Euros, or imprisionment of a term not to exceed nine months.

Look, I'm all for digital rights, but that's going too far. Jail time? Maybe an overnight stay with Bubba in cell block 3 will convince some college student that piracy is wrong, but this is too much. Ruining somebody's life because they didn't pay Sir Mixalot for downloading "baby got back?" Damn, that's harsh! And I thought Europe would be more enlightened than that. Oh well...just goes to show you...no place is safe these days.

The root cause ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget it's mostly because of the US (and US companies) pressuring Europe into their legislation.

Re:The root cause ?

[tsa]

That's not true, it's the spineless ignorant European politicians that don't stand up to these companies because they are afraid of the wrath of America. When will the EU learn that Europe is a huge continent with a very important market that could have a significant impact on world politics and economics if only they stopped arguing about petty little things and concentrate on important things for once?

Re:DMCA Sux

[Frymaster]

the dmca is just a thorn. if you wanna be concerned, take a looksee at the grandaddy of intellectual property agreements the world trade organization's trade-related intellectual property rights (trips) schedule.

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.

Lack of coverage

[kramer2718]

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?

Does not matter

[00_NOP]

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.

Is anyone surprised?

[OzPhIsH]

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.

no more MP3 players

[MoFoYa]

[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.

Re:Attention

[RedCard]

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.

Why the waste of bandwidth?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

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 /. after all...

I am sorry but how could this be modded funny ?

[aepervius]

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.

It is not only the EuroDMCA...

[kaip]

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.)

Re:It is not only the EuroDMCA...

[Rogerborg]

I remember hearing a BBC article on the difference betwee the Finnish and British governments. You (yes, you, Joe Public, even Joe Foreigner) can just walk in off the street to the residence of the Finnish Prime Minister, and ask to see any government related document. And they don't peer at you in a suspicious manner and tell you they'll get back to you in two years after checking your security clearance, they smile and fetch it straight away, and get you coffee while you're waiting. For example, they fetched some of the personal correspondance between Tony Blair and the Finnish Prime Minister, the actual original letters, and just handed them over, no questions, no bullshit.

Contrast with asking for copies of the same correspondance in the UK. The UK Freedom of Information act gives you every right to see them, but when the BBC asked for them, they were given the run around, passed from department to department in Whitehall, each one of which expressed amazement that anyone would ask for this. They were eventually fobbed off by being told that such correspondance was classified, too secret to be seen. They said that they'd already seen it, and that it talked mostly about football. This produced outright disbelief, and vague threats about carrying out "further investigation" on the reporter.

I think that sums up the spectrum in Europe. In some places, there is a genuine openness and willingness to trust Joe Public. In others, the citizen is treated with suspicion and disdain.

My hope is that we move towards the Finnish position. My fear is that we'll all end up more like Britain.

A brilliant idea

[SubliminalLove]

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.

Australia has one too...

[chriskenrick]

Even tech literate Aussies don't seem to know this, but we already adopted our own DMCA-alike.

See here for details.

MP3s are a German invention too

[hughk]

This is particularly a shame because the inventor of the MP3 was the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, a publicly funded research institute.

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.

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

[blane.bramble]

insanely high taxes,

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.

No, it's competition, but the downside.

[MickLinux]

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.