Slashdot Mirror
'First Base' In Greek Courts For ISP-Level Blocking
arisvega writes "At a first level (the lowest court level in the Greek judiciary system) an order has been issued (article in Greek, Google translation is fair enough) for a 'plan on behalf of Internet Service Providers regarding he implementation of technological measures to deny access to internet users for webpages through which illegal copies of copyrighted work are being distributed.' The order seems to be general and descriptive, and is a manifestation of the implementation process for an even more general and vague larger-scale EU directive, which is the common source that caused the rulings recently posted on slashdot regarding the UK, the Netherlands and Finland. This appears to be one of the reasons that prompted Anonymous to launch defacing attacks on Greek government websites some three months back."
At a first level (the lowest court level in the Greek judiciary system) an order has been issued
At the last level, you have to kill a boss and say "I'll rip your head off and shit down your neck" to win the court case.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
That's a bit silly. It's like telling a kid who has terminal cancer he doesn't need to carry on going to school because there's no point. Cancer kids and Greece have a right to fully functional lives.
There is another issue: if people knew **AA shenanigans could be put on hold if their country was in dire straights, that would be reason enough for people to demand that the government bankrupt the country. Just for the joy of sticking it up the **AAs' collective ass, ya know...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
You just noticed? How quaint.
I have news for you: in pretty much every country, politicos and powers-that-be mostly care about (1) lining their pockets and (2) being reelected to carry on lining their pockets for a few more years. Oh and yes, a sizable bunch of them also get off on power and control, and seeing their own faces on TV. At any rate, precious few care about their constituents...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
The EU works like this: ministers from all countries come together and decide on certain directives -- a description of how the laws of all countries should behave. Then they make a contract on behalf of their country with each other to adjust the laws of their country to adhere to this standard.
The contracts say that you have a certain time for implementation, and whoever doesn't implement the law is being fined (there is a chain of measures, which you can also appeal to).
Since Greece agreed to the contract, they have to implement it.
With the (expensive) data retention directive -- which has been ruled unjustified in some countries already -- countries have a chance to make a good case to the EU for rejecting it. But then the directive has to be overruled and the contracts have to be cancelled in some way -- ideally without anyone losing face.
When the ministers agree a directive would be a good idea to implement, and then when it's time to implement the consensus is that the directive is a bad idea, the blame has to go somewhere. Usually the ministers make themselves small in the country, and everyone blames the EU for imposing bad laws on the innocent countries -- disregarding that the countries agreed to the very same law and made a specific contract with each other.
NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
Idiomatic expressions like "First Base" are unfortunate for international readers. Oh, wait, I forgot we don't actually have editors. I'll retract my criticism.
Comparing piracy to childhood cancer, that's pretty low.
He wasn't comparing piracy and childhood cancer. He was comparing the state of the greek economy with childhood cancer. There's a chance of survival, put it is a painful and frightening experience.
Well, first of all your process better describes the EU under the previous Maastricht Treaty than under the current Lisbon Treaty that came into effect in 2009. Now both the European Commission and the European Parliament - which is voted in directly - has to approve of directives. Secondly, there is a problem here with time. For example here in Norway we're required to implement the Data Retention Directive that was passed in the EU in 2006 but we still haven't done it. And no matter how much we vote now for different politicians and new ministers it's impossible for us to get out of this agreement. Our own parliament has been effectively neutered so it can't actually do anything. If the government passes a bad law, we can elect a new government and change the law. If they agree to a bad EU directive, we're fucked.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings