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Finland Is Crowdsourcing Its New Copyright Law

Posted by samzenpus on from the power-to-the-people dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Internet activists in Finland, upset with the country's strict copyright laws, are ready to take advantage of the country's promise to vote on any citizen-proposed bill that reaches 50,000 signatures. Digital rights group Common Sense in Copyright has proposed sweeping changes to Finland's Lex Karpela, a 2006 amendment to the Finnish copyright law that more firmly criminalized digital piracy. Under it, 'countless youngsters have been found guilty of copyright crimes and sentenced to pay thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands, of euros in punitive damages to the copyright organizations.' The proposal to fix copyright is the best-rated and most-commented petition on the Open Ministry site."

5 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. What if they "fix" it in an incompatible way? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They can fix and improve and change as much as they want. The moment it is out and the US doesnt like it, starts accusing Finland of "theft" and threatens painful trade sanctions, they will have to revert it back or face consequences more severe than putting up with the current copyright.

    Copyright is simply too valuable for the few influential stakeholders to be allowed to be decided democratically.

    1. Re:What if they "fix" it in an incompatible way? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Do you really think the US would trade sanction an EU state? I doubt it. They may face pressure from the EU itself but the last thing the EU needs is to start pissing off the states that actually pay their own way.

  2. Brown Trousers Time by bfandreas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this is even remotely successful then a lot of lobbyists will get their knickers in a twist.
    The chances of this being ratified should be rather slim due to:
    -international treaties
    -legality of the law without having to rewrite other laws
    -being watered down in parliament
    ...

    I would guess a lot of lawyers will work on this thing. So chances are this might be the best written piece of legislation never to be signed.

    the common democratic illness is that we vote for politians based on how well they look in a suit, how loud they shout their simple truths and how long ago they had their last sex scandal. Should be credibility, competence and merit. Oh well.

    --
    20 minutes into the future
  3. No way in hell by qbast · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sure, you can crowdsource and gather signatures all you want - have fun, at least you will feel more in control. All you get is to submit your proposition for parliament to vote on. At which point the same lobbyists and paid politicians as usual make the decision. There is no way in hell this is going to pass.

    1. Re:No way in hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, we should just stop making the world a better place, because there's no way in hell that'll ever happen.

      In fact, we should just curl up and die right now.