UK Becomes Sixth Country to Implement EUCD

orbital3 writes "The UK, as of October 31, 2003, became the sixth nation to implement the laws required to comply with the European Union Copyright Directive with its Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 legislation. This is a short little article about it and here is a copy of the law itself."

Comments

So I guess...

[badboy_tw2002]

All you guys that were going to get out because of DMCA are cancelling your reservations? Don't worry, the US won't let a bunch of Brits top us. They'll build a super-DMCA? We'll build a Super- DOOPER-DMCA!

Excellent

[bigberk]

Once the US and EU jails are filled with teenagers, society can truly enjoy the New Renaissance. I for will be glad to see the earth cleaned of this scourge that is casual media duplication.

All hail Great Enterprise, Who knows no international boundaries. Thou arst truly the Corporate Ruler in this modern age. Cleanse us of our sins, oh Corporate one. Show us how to become better Consumers! Without Thou we are lost; we canst not thinketh by ourselves. Help us think! Neigh, think for us! Please take our money, and tell us what to do. We are forever in Thy humble service.

Re:Excellent

[mormop]

This could be part of a new UK Government scheme to cut the outsourcing of IT based labour to India, the far east etc.

For instance, it costs 25,000 pa to employ a coder in the UK but only 3000 pa to employ his/her counterpart in India. Tech savvy people are quite likely to use peer to peer or copying so by criminalising even reasonable acts, e.g. ripping a CD to play tracks on your MP3 player, you can then fill prisons with tech savvy people and force them to code or remote administer networks without having to pay them more than an ounce of tobacco a month.

Business benefits from free labour and the rapid growth in the need for prison officers will end unemployment overnight.

I'd better shut up mow or that twat Blunkett might start getting ideas.

Re:Oh great. Now I'm a criminal

[Feztaa]

Scum like you make me puke. You're whats wrong with the world, don't you see it?!

I, for one, will be glad to see you rotting in prison, you putrid, disgusting excuse for a human being. ... I say, as I listen to my 4-day-long XMMS playlist, composed 75% or more of music that I haven't paid for in any way, shape, or form. :)

so....

[croddy]

now you know how we feel.

sucks, eh?

So now what

[mcc]

So does Alan Cox move to Iceland now, or what?

I have this mental image of Alan Cox a man on the run, moving from country to country, each time leaving just minutes before a law goes into effect making the distribution of software that facilitates the breaking of copy protection illegal, always staying just one step ahead of the DMCA as one by one, each country implements the DMCA or something like it..

Until finally there is no where left, and finally, Alan Cox winds up in the most fitting place possible to spend the rest of his life working on the Linux kernel in hermitage: with the Penguins. In Antartica. Outside the dominion of any country. HA!

Hmm, there's a thought. If in order to escape draconian DMCA-like laws, you get on a big boat and go out in international waters to perform copyright-dangerous actions, then does that make it Piracy on the High Seas?

Okay I think I've been awake a bit too long.

In other news...

[nicky_d]

Further depressing developments for those of us in the UK: the 'snooper's charter' has now passed through the Lords. Ready your proxies and encryption plug-ins - but remember they might require you to hand over the key at some point.

Re:I expected the UK to pass this...

[kfg]

. . . nobody gives a flying fuck about liberty, freedom, rights, or the general well-being of the population anymore.

Well shit no. Where the hell is the profit in that?

KFG

Re:MP3 players become worthless?

[Cooke]

No, you just can't play copyrighted music on them. Feel free to make your own music and listen over and over and over.

Re:Mod parent (+1, Informative)

[16K Ram Pack]

It's also illegal to miss out your 2 hours per week Crossbow practice, but I don't know many people who do it.

In the end, it's why habeus corpus is so important - so that juries can get stupid laws changed that politicians are too lazy, involved or frightened to change.

Re:Mod parent (+1, Informative)

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Ah, but the best bit is that carrying the weapons required for that practice would now be illegal...