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EU's Long-Promised Digital Media Portability Rules Go Into Effect (wired.co.uk)
The EU's long-promised digital media portability rules have taken effect as of April 1st, letting residents access Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other paid digital media services in other member countries as if they were still at home. From a report: The European Commission's 'digital single market strategy,' which last year claimed victory over mobile roaming charges, has now lead to it passing the 'portability regulation,' which will allow users around the EU to use region locked services more freely while travelling abroad. Under currently active rules, what content is available in a certain territory is based on the specific local rights that a provider has secured. The new rules allow for what Phil Sherrell, head of international media, entertainment and sport for international law firm Bird and Bird, calls "copyright fiction," allowing the normal rules to be bent temporarily while a user is travelling.
The regulation was originally passed in June 2017, but the nine-month period given to rights holders and service providers to prepare is about to expire, and thereby making the rules enforceable. From today, content providers, whether their products are videos, music, games, live sport or e-books, will use their subscribers' details to validate their home country, and let them access all the usual content and services available in that location all around the Union.
The regulation was originally passed in June 2017, but the nine-month period given to rights holders and service providers to prepare is about to expire, and thereby making the rules enforceable. From today, content providers, whether their products are videos, music, games, live sport or e-books, will use their subscribers' details to validate their home country, and let them access all the usual content and services available in that location all around the Union.
I also sidestep the need for policemen by owning a gun and going after thieves myself.
The problem apparently is that it's hard and expensive to secure rights for content in multiple countries. In some cases companies like Netflix simply don't bother in smaller countries, in other cases the distributor has already sold an exclusive license for content to someone else. The EU people are well aware of this. This new rule is simply the first step towards EU-wide licensing. First they'll make it easy to sell and enforce such a license, then they'll make it mandatory: Netflix will no longer be able to offer a different selection in different countries (with a posible exception for local content)
Oh and Phil Sherrell and his copyright fiction can go to hell. He and his ilk would do well to remember that copyright exists for the benefit of the public, not for creators or distributors.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
"Netflix will no longer be able to"? My guess is that Netflix will be more like: "glad not to have to". If I were running Netflix, or any similar service really, I'd be awfully annoyed at having to waste the time, money, and engineering effort to create geographical blocks on content to appease some scummy RIAA/MPAA-wannabe org. (Or, for that matter, the scum at the RIAA and MPAA themselves. Though, I suppose the RIAA doesn't come into play for a video service.) Bonus: the fewer of those types I had to cut deals with, the fewer toxic people I'd have to meet in my life and the happier I'd be in general.
Imagine all the people...