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Copyright Law Could Put End To Net Memes (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Memes, remixes and other user-generated content could disappear online if the EU's proposed rules on copyright become law, warn experts. Digital rights groups are campaigning against the Copyright Directive, which the European Parliament will vote on later this month. The legislation aims to protect rights-holders in the internet age. But critics say it misunderstands the way people engage with web content and risks excessive censorship. The Copyright Directive is an attempt to reshape copyright for the internet, in particular rebalancing the relationship between copyright holders and online platforms. Article 13 states that platform providers should "take measures to ensure the functioning of agreements concluded with rights-holders for the use of their works." Critics say this will, in effect, require all internet platforms to filter all content put online by users, which many believe would be an excessive restriction on free speech. There is also concern that the proposals will rely on algorithms that will be programmed to "play safe" and delete anything that creates a risk for the platform.

23 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Let me refer you to Lt. Cmdr Data by nitehawk214 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here is his reaction after hearing about this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  2. Copyright law globally is becoming impossible by rickb928 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The US is facing a bill to extend copyright another 70 years. And to prevent much 'old' content from going into the public domain.

    Corporations are wrecking copyright by claiming rights for their 'lifetime', which for virtually every corporation is 'forever'.

    Digital content is also virtually perpetual, which makes perpetual rights both rational (if you believe that) and possible. Physical media such as paintings will eventually face the problem of being replicated to be preserved, and then the inevitable fight over rights of this 'perpetual' replica as a replacement.

    And the Internet has thrived on fair use, which was tolerated until it became widespread and actually practical to use.

    We need to reconsider letting copyright become perpetual, that it become limited to reasonable protection, and see if Mickey Mouse actually fades away...

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    1. Re:Copyright law globally is becoming impossible by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 2

      The US is facing a bill to extend copyright another 70 years. And to prevent much 'old' content from going into the public domain.

      There's a way both to allow copyrights to potentially be extended and to get stuff into the public domain at the same time. I've posted before on this. The problem is that if these copyrights are so valuable that they simply must be extended, then why is Congress doing so for free or a mere pittance? Allow for renewals once the initial copyright expires but limit those to renewal to a much shorter period, say, 10 years. Charge $1 million for the first renewal. I mean, if these copyrights are valuable, they should require a fee. Uncle Sam keeps the money. The 2nd renewal is also for 10 years but it goes up by a factor of 10 to $10 million. 3rd renewal costs $100 million. 4th renewal costs $1 billion. At some point, probably at the $10 million mark, almost everybody will drop out and things will enter the public domain. Disney, for example, is a publicly traded company and I don't think their shareholders will view $1 billion a good price to pay to renew the copyright on 1920s Mickey Mouse when the following renewal will cost $10 billion.

  3. Article 27 GDPR was the breaking point by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At what point will it no longer be worth it to business in the EU?

    For many companies, that came on 25 May 2018, the effective date of Article 27 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (text). It requires businesses outside the EU that do business in the EU to hire a representative in the EU to handle privacy requests, even if the foreign business otherwise complies with the GDPR. Representative service can cost thousands of USD per year (source).

    Only "occasional" processing of personal data is exempt from the Article 27 requirement, and it remains to be seen how EU judges will interpret "occasional" in light of its lack of definition in the text of the GDPR. For example, if a business does less than 1% of its worldwide turnover in the EU, is processing "occasional" when it happens roughly twice per order, once during payment and once when the business prints a shipping label?

    1. Re:Article 27 GDPR was the breaking point by Rakarra · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Representative service can cost thousands of USD per year"

      Oh noes! How will the multinational conglomerates worth billions of dollars on the open market be able to handle such a cost?

      It's also a very high barrier to any smaller business trying to start in Europe or expand into it. But it's not like the immediate effect of regulations shutting down a business, it's more that you have no idea what businesses could have started up if the barriers to entry weren't so high. But since that's an unknown, we tend not to think about it very much, and thus undervalue what those barriers are actually costing us, because we're only considering sticking it to the big boys. Well anything applied uniformly hits the smaller guy a lot harder than the big guy.

    2. Re:Article 27 GDPR was the breaking point by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My current employer is not a "multinational conglomerate" but a small business in the United States. It did less than 1 percent of its business in the EU during the 365 days prior to the effective date of the GDPR. If it were to continue to ship to the EU, the price of the Article 27 representative service that I linked would exceed the total margin on orders that bill or ship to the EU.

    3. Re:Article 27 GDPR was the breaking point by tepples · · Score: 2

      You only need to have a representative if you do large scale processing of tracking data mentioned in paragraph 9.1: Like race, religion, health and other categories deemed especially sensitive, and only if you haven't got prior permission.

      Article 27(2)(a) (linked again for convenience) sets forth four requirements for a private sector business outside the EU that does business in the EU to be exempt from the requirement to hire a representative:

      1. processing "is occasional";
      2. processing does not include large-scale processing of Article 9(1) data, largely related to membership in a protected class under anti-discrimination law, which you mentioned;
      3. processing does not include large-scale processing of data about criminal convictions; and
      4. processing "is unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons".

      The use of the word "and" in the text of the article means that processing must meet all four requirements. Even if processing meets criteria 2, 3, and 4, if it does not additionally meet criterion 1 of being "occasional," the business must either hire a representative in the EU or turn away customers in the EU. This is why a lot of small businesses outside the EU are waiting for EU judges to define "occasional" before entering or reentering the EU market.

      If my analysis is incorrect, then what does the phrase "processing which is occasional" in the regulation mean, and why?

    4. Re: Article 27 GDPR was the breaking point by Calydor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That the US is a collection of non-sovereign states and the EU is a collection of sovereign countries?

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    5. Re: Article 27 GDPR was the breaking point by Andtalath · · Score: 2

      Out of curiosity, which part did you think you didn't comply with?
      The regulations are basically:
      Tell the user what data s/he stores and why.
      Let the user decide if you are allowed to keep the data, unless there is a valid reason to keep it.
      Don't lie about what you store.

      Honestly, that is about it.

      The fees?
      They come after EU tells you to stop what you are doing and you refuse to comply...

  4. Implementation cost by Sarten-X · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Critics say this will, in effect, require all internet platforms to filter all content put online by users

    I run a forum. I already have to deal with the occasional spam that gets through the registration system, and now I have to check everything my users say to see if someone else has already said it? No, thanks.

    I've also built a few web applications, some of which accept user-submitted content. Do I now need to integrate that with a third-party scanning tool to enforce filtering? I'd really rather not, just from a licensing and contracting perspective...

    I also note this comes hot on the heels of the GDPR. I guess it's time for another new privacy policy update, to tell folks that the information they submit (which might possibly be personally-identifiable) will now be handed off to a copyright scanner and checked to see if they dared to have an unoriginal thought...

    With all due respect, fuck that.

    --
    You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    1. Re:Implementation cost by dyfet · · Score: 2

      As Stalin might have said, it is not important who controls the platforms, but rather the filters...

      "unoriginal" will also include "unapproved", such an infrastructure will not be used for copyright alone.

    2. Re:Implementation cost by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I run a forum as well. The penalties for violating copyright are $200 to $150,000 per work infringed. Even if one item slipped by me and I was hit with a $200 penalty, that would be devastating. That's essentially half of my small forum's yearly budget. And that's if they go on the low end. If the copyright owner went for what seems to be the standard RIAA amount of around $2,000, my forum would permanently be shut down and I'd be in bad financial shape. If they went for the maximum, I'd need to personally declare bankruptcy. All because someone uploaded a screenshot from a movie without getting express permission for that one still. Meanwhile, the financial cost of using one still from a movie without the company's permission is literally $0. (Who looks at a meme image and then decides "Well, guess I don't need to buy THAT movie now!")

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    3. Re:Implementation cost by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

      "There is also concern that the proposals will rely on algorithms that will be programmed to "play safe" and delete anything that creates a risk for the platform." That is not a concern, it's a feature. And once the current system of copyright enforcement after the fact (with takedown notices and such) is replaced with a priori filtering, you can be sure that websites will then also be held responsible for socially undesirable content, and asked or scared into censoring it a priori as well. I expect EU sites to comply and others to leave. Mission accomplished.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  5. EU's proposed rules by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2, Insightful

    >> European Parliament's proposed rules

    That's cute: they think they are a relevant governing body.

  6. Life of author of work for hire; Bridgeman v Corel by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    The US is facing a bill to extend copyright another 70 years.

    Copyright in which works? All works, or just pre-1972 sound recordings that are already subject to copyright-like rights granted by the several states? Besides, the sound recording copyright is among the easiest to design around, as once copyright in the underlying musical work has expired, it's fair game for your cover version.

    Corporations are wrecking copyright by claiming rights for their 'lifetime', which for virtually every corporation is 'forever'.

    For purpose of the U.S. copyright term in works other than pre-1972 sound recordings, the life of the author of a work made for hire is reckoned as 25 years after first publication or 50 years after creation, whichever comes first. This part of the copyright term formula has remained unchanged since the Copyright Act of 1976, even though a 1998 amendment to the statute extended the post-mortem period from the Berne minimum 50 years to 70 years to match that of the European Union.

    Physical media such as paintings will eventually face the problem of being replicated to be preserved, and then the inevitable fight over rights of this 'perpetual' replica as a replacement.

    Unlike Australia, the United States does not recognize "sweat of the brow" as extending a copyright term. When copyright in an original two-dimensional work such as a painting expires, copyright in all faithful reproductions thereof expires along with it. Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp., 36 F. Supp. 2d 191 (S.D.N.Y. 1999).

  7. Copyright is just about by oldgraybeard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    a permanent monopoly. Which is just what the corporations that are ending up with these copyrights need. In order to make them a good buy and profit producer for the corporation owners. They want them to be an asset that will never be used up. Never require additional costs related to development and design. In essence they have an almost nonexistent cost to maintain. So most every bit of income generated is, for the most part profit.
    That is why these corporations are willing to buy the right copyright laws from the politicians. It is a one time cost now for huge profit with little effort later.
    I do not think it can be stopped because politicians are corrupt and will always take the money.

    Just my 2 cents ;).

  8. Re:Memes will survive... by jwhyche · · Score: 3

    Memes will not even change. Nobody that creates them, mostly teens and young adults give two shits about some EU law. An those that even know about it will simply ignore it.

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  9. Re:This kills the Internet by dyfet · · Score: 2

    A free internet, if you can keep it...

    Apparently we can't.

  10. EU Overreach by pubwvj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Once again the EU tries to impose it's laws on the rest of the world. What this will result in is platforms leaving the EU. If the platform is not physically in the EU the EU has no actual control over them. Sure, the EU can convict them in absentia but so what. Just ignore the EU.

  11. Coming For Our Memes by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2

    They're coming for our memes?

    Finally, something that might unite the right and left against overbearing copyright laws!

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  12. Re:and nothing of value was lost by Memnos · · Score: 2

    It's spelled "velsom". For God's sake, learn Kludish.

    --
    I don't trust atoms -- they make up stuff.
  13. Re: No More EU by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

    Tell it to your leaders. They don't think so.

    Face facts: Europe requires adult supervision. Before they had it, the whole place was at war, every 30 years.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  14. Re:No More EU by alvinrod · · Score: 2

    Personally, I'd be glad for it. My taxes would be substantially lower if we weren't trying to be the world's police. Even if you could somehow demonstrate that it were good of us to do so anyway, I don't believe we have the moral authority to do regardless of what good may come of it. Furthermore, I suspect that our popularity would shoot up overnight were we to leave everyone else the hell alone.

    The European countries would end up paying more for it, that much is certain. Though, whether that's in the form of additional taxes to support their own militaries or learning to speak Russian is a point of contention.