Internet Luminaries Urge EU To Kill Off Automated Copyright Filter Proposal (theregister.co.uk)

A large group of Internet pioneers have sent an open letter to the European Union urging it to scrap a proposal to introduce automated upload filters, arguing that it could damage the internet as we know it. The Register: The European Parliament's Legal Affairs (Juri) Committee will vote on the proposal contained in Article 13 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive next week. The proposal would see all companies that "store and provide to the public access to large amounts of works" obliged to "prevent the availability... of works... identified by rightholders." Despite the inclusion of language that says such measures need to be "appropriate and proportionate," it has caused many to worry that the law will lead to a requirement for all platforms to introduce automated content filtering, and shift liability for any copyrighted material that appears online from the user that posts it to the platform itself.

"By inverting this liability model and essentially making platforms directly responsible for ensuring the legality of content in the first instance, the business models and investments of platforms large and small will be impacted," warns the letter [PDF] signed by "Father of the Internet" Vint Cerf, world world web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, as well a host of other internet luminaries including Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, security expert Bruce Schneier and net neutrality namer Tim Wu.

Comments

How about getting rid of writable media tax first?

[AlwinBarni]

How about getting rid of writable media tax first?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:How about getting rid of writable media tax fir

[bluefoxlucid]

How about we get rid of the Berne Convention?

Next EU Problem

[SmaryJerry]

Even if they win this argument and individuals are liable for their own copyright infringement, the next argument will be then as a website you have to be able to identify the person who uploaded to your service so the infringing person can be prosecuted. I foresee the days of anonymity gone soon (10 years or less) in the EU's internet.

Re:" Internet pioneers " ?

[mcl630]

You didn't bother reading the last paragraph of the summary, huh? None of the listed "pioneers" work for the companies you mentioned.

Limited Internet is an Oxymoron

[xanthos]

I have faith in the Internet to perform its most basic function: to resiliently get a packet from point A to point B.

Governments and corporations are welcome to erect whatever barriers they see fit to raise, but they will be effective only until they become onerous. Then, as has happened before, an enterprising geek will find a way to rip, decss, vpn, tor, p2p, IPV6 their way around or through the barriers.

The Internet is not regulated, the Internet can not be effectively regulated and serve its intended purpose.

Re:Limited Internet is an Oxymoron

[fafalone]

Then, as has happened before, an enterprising geek will find a way to rip, decss, vpn, tor, p2p, IPV6 their way around or through the barriers.

A lot of policies aren't about stopping dedicated geeks, they're about raising the technical knowledge, time requirement, and risk level to the point where only a small number of geeks are doing it.

Re:The EU is hellbent on preventing internet servi

[Calydor]

But where are we supposed to host things anymore? Between Net Neutrality going away in the US, the EU and UK wanting to clamp down hard on controlling what can and can't exist on the internet, which well-connected territory should we look towards for hosting today?

Re:" Internet pioneers " ?

[Wootery]

I really shouldn't reply to ACs - they're almost always about this dumb. Anyway:

I knoq, never said they did?

So why were you talking about them? You just felt like some irrelevant rambling?

Born into a wealth family

You keep saying that. Are you under the impression that people with wealthy families cannot be pioneers?