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Single European Copyright Title On the Horizon
presroi (657709) writes "It has been 13 years after the last harmonization effort of copyright within the European Union and this period might soon be over. After the election of a new European Parliament in May this year, Jean-Claude Juncker has been nominated to become the new President of the European Commission. He has named a unified copyright his top priority, a statement repeated today at a hearing before the Greens/EFA group in the European parliament (transcript of the question by MEP Julia Reda and his answer in German, Video recording). These statements are coinciding with the upcoming release of a report by the General Directorate in charge of copyright, of which an advanced draft has been already leaked to the internet. The report analyzes four possible policy options, one of which is the introduction of a Single EU Copyright title."
Nice to know that in our beloved EU the top priority for a politician is the harmonization of copyright. It means that all the other pressing problems have been solved.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Nigh infinite duration.
Poor review with an unfunded regulation body.
A crippling, life-destroying penalties structure.
Fair use? Son? What do you think this is? You're dreaming. Now go to jail! Because we have the patent on that and don't want you using it.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
These are the most annoying parts, translated as best I can from Politician:
3.2.6: Extend the blank media levy to Europe-wide, rather than country-by-country.
3.3.4: Proposes increasing 'due diligence' burden on 'all actors in the value chain.' I think this means increase ISP liability for internet piracy so they are forced to preemptively block sites providing infringing content. It also specifically talks about the role of financial institutions in ensuring infringing services are unable to do business.
JC is all about the consolidation of power. Copyright seems a reasonable place to start without angering Joe Schmoe too much. I guess this means we will have a warmer relationship with the dictatorship across the atlantic.
I guess it could have been worse. The greens tried to put a pedophile on the throne. Err, i mean "chair".
As someone who deal with copyright issues on a daily basis (i work in publishing, for the wargamers community). Dealing with disharmonized laws in Europe is a bit of a nightmare (i m based in France and recently had to deal with copyright issues in UK, turned out to be a bit of a nightmare).
A unified law in Europe would help my dealings with authors.
However i m sure they will put some insane things in it, the problem being that we basicaly got no saying when it comes to EU laws.
After the election of a new European Parliament in May this year, Jean-Claude Juncker has been nominated to become the new President of the European Commission
Basically, all of EU 's administration that matters is chosen by the running governments of the member-states: all administration is merely an assembly of the guys already in charge. The European Parliament has had very little to say on administrative issues, and this is the first term that the European Parliament's members will presumably have the power to block EU directives (something that remains to be seen how it works out): and this is the only part that they will have in the law-making process --the European Parliament DOES NOT have the power of legislative initiative.
FYI, so you do not get carried away by flashy designations and think that this is an actual parliamentary representative democracy akin to national parliaments: it is not.
The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
What with the internet lightspeed and all it doesn't take much more than that to distribute your works. Hell, it was good enogh in the whip and buggy days, right?
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
I took part in the copyright consultation (along with about 10000 others), and like many other members of the general public I pointed out the need for reducing the scope and duration of copyright, and to actually try to measure what effects copyright has rather than blindly assuming that it will have its intended consequence of increasing the production of works. I also pointed out that much cultural production, perhaps the majority if you count by the number of authors, is currently illegal due to unauthorized use of copyrighted works. This would disappear if the law as it is were consistently enforced, and gives us a glimpse of the cost of the current system.
After reading parts of the leaked white paper, I am disappointed by the European Commission's response. They give lip service to these issues ("the need for an evidence-based approach", for example), but only in passing. In their "way forward" suggestions, they always choose either to do nothing, or to move according to the wishes of large publishers. They also assert, without evidence, that the dynamic, meditum-to-longer-term effect of reducing copyright would lead to a faster rate of obsolecense of copyrighted material, which would then lead to less incentive to create new works. That's stated as if it were self evident, just a single page after they emphasized the need for an evidence-based approach. In fact, I think a stronger case could be made for exactly the opposite conclusion: When copyright doesn't last forever, you have an incentive to create new works to benefit from.
I did not expect much from the consultation, but I hoped that they would at least discuss the issues raised there, and argue against parts they disagreed with, rather than just ignoring them.
This could be a great thing. For one, it might remove power from some of the most odious copyright organisations in Europe, like GEMA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
It'd also create a common market for media streaming companies. No more of this bullshit where companies have to negotiate separate deals with each country's copyright authority, all of them with their special little caveats.
To give another German example (it's where I currently live) none of the video streaming sites offer movies in the original language unless the movie is in German -- you either get the German dub or nothing.
Google went as far as showing a warning label saying "audio is in German". I'm pretty sure they've already had quite a few people complain, and I'm also pretty sure it's not a technological limitation. My friend in Switzerland is able to stream movies from iTunes in multiple languages just fine.
But somehow I'm pretty sure it'll all end up working against us. Copyright holders have been having a hard time changing existing laws to suit their interests, but when new laws are being written, I'm pretty sure they'll lobby the hell out of them.
Also, they'll have one target to fight instead of having to go at it one country at a time.
Hell, they'll probably let GEMA take the reins and fuck music for everyone instead of just the people in Germany.
So I expect to see:
* reduction of the term of copyright to 14 years
* ISPs granted common carrier status, and absolved of responsibility
* clarification that linking to copyrighted content is not illegal, hosting the content is
etc
Though I doubt Jean-Claude Juncker, with his reputation as a beaurocrat, will help the EU in any way. Let's see if David Cameron was right about him or not.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
If you suggest withdrawing from Berne, expect complaints from export industries even other than entertainment. Withdrawal from Berne implies withdrawal from the WTO, and countries are likely to impose prohibitive import tariffs across the board on non-WTO members.
Vote UKIP. Whatever you think of their other policies, we really need them in for one term to get out of the political union the EU imposes.
== Jez ==
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