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The EU's Controversial Copyright Law Has Been Rejected -- For Now (bbc.com)

Members of the European Parliament have voted to reject a controversial copyright law in its current form, deciding to return to the issue in September. From a report: The law would have put a greater responsibility on individual websites to check for copyright infringements. But the web's inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and others had expressed concerns about the proposed rules, which they said threatened internet freedom. Opponents greeted the decision as a victory. Julia Reda, a Pirate Party MEP who had campaigned against the legislation tweeted: "Great success: Your protests have worked! The European Parliament has sent the copyright law back to the drawing board." BPI Music, which represents UK record labels, had supported the bill and tweeted: "We respect the decision... we will work with MEPs over the next weeks to explain how the proposed directive will benefit not just European creativity, but also internet users and the technology sector."

70 comments

  1. Professor Fritzen Posten by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Join my first post seminar today!

    1. Re:Professor Fritzen Posten by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does your seminar cover the subject of how the proposed directive will benefit not just European creativity, but also internet users and the technology sector, according to the BPI Music?

    2. Re:Professor Fritzen Posten by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you will be granted the right to purchase err sorry lease the shit they peddle in whatever format they chose at increased cost.

  2. Bullshit ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    BPI Music, which represents UK record labels, had supported the bill and tweeted: "We respect the decision... we will work with MEPs over the next weeks to explain how the proposed directive will benefit not just European creativity, but also internet users and the technology sector."

    Lies, damned lies, and the public statements by the assholes in the copyright cartels.

    This will benefit nobody but the copyright people, and greatly harm everyone else.

    So much bullshit.

    1. Re:Bullshit ... by Faluzeer · · Score: 3, Informative

      Whilst I mostly agree with you, I believe it will also benefit the politicians as they will no doubt receive financial incentives to help change their votes when this is next debated.

    2. Re:Bullshit ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No wonder countries are leaving the EU.

    3. Re:Bullshit ... by The+Cynical+Critic · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Even if it wasn't an industry as heavy in lobbying as the record industry, lobbyist pushed bills tend to be like slasher villains. No matter how many times and how gruesomely you kill them, they'll be back before you know it.

      The worst part about this bill is the (rather aptly numbered) 13th article and how it forces content platforms to automatically scan content for copyrighted works, but completely forgets about fair use for purposes like satire, criticism, education and how nobody's come up with an even remotely accurate automated way of telling those uses apart from copyright infringement. Not only does this significantly increase the cost of trying to create a social media service in Europe, it's also rife for abuse where people use copyright to stifle free speech.

      The second really dumb part, the 11th article, is really just the publishing industry shooting itself in the foot. In Germany the publishing house Springer lobbied in a similar law and all it did was cause companies like Google and Facebook to just become careful and not display links to articles by Springer owned publications, which cause readership and advertisement revenue to drop for these publications.

      --
      "Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
    4. Re:Bullshit ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Makes sense, right? If BPI Musics interests get rejected by the parliament like that, they might have more success if they part with the EU.

    5. Re: Bullshit ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Paradoxically, this BPI media cartel is from the UK.

    6. Re: Bullshit ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And in Spain, they just shut off the service, leaving the greedy media mobsters crying "but we wanted you to paaaaay!"

    7. Re:Bullshit ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You must be extremely gullible if you think that countries on their own can do better the EU as a whole when it comes to negotiating with the IP mafia...

    8. Re:Bullshit ... by MrMr · · Score: 2

      This reaction is actually quite amusing. 'Explaning' why they voted the wrong way is exactly the same game that MEPs play with their dumb voters as well. Nice to see the bullshitters bullshitted.

    9. Re: Bullshit ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In case you didn't notice, MEPs rejected the law. The neoliberal capture of the regulatory system which has been in progress since the 1980s is finally being rolled back in the EU, unlike the USA.

      That's why the right wing in the UK want to leave.

    10. Re:Bullshit ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The really, really dumb part though is that by establishing a link tax, they are trying to sabotage any "unauthorised" dissemination or discussion of published knowledge.

      Not only would it outright kill Wikipedia, which for all it's faults still is an invaluable resource, think a little about what the logical next step is for the over-reaching, greedy copyright assholes. If you can enforce a "right" to be payed when you're quoted, how long until we get that crap off line too? Suddenly you can't discuss or publish anything without racking up a fortune in "quotation fees". The consequences are devastating for our society and science as we know it, and have known it for hundreds of years.

    11. Re:Bullshit ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, it would slow them down considerably at least, and increase the possibilities of local resistance.

      The problem with the EU, much like with Washington, is that there is a humongous amount of power collected there. Getting things through there means you're automatically granted to win everywhere—after all that's the name of the game and the entire purpose of gathering all that power there.

      This makes these centers incredibly tempting for corrupting agencies such as lobbyist, and at the same time, the counter-forces there are generally speaking much, much weaker and far less likely to be heard than on a more local or regional level.

    12. Re:Bullshit ... by fazig · · Score: 1

      As you mention slasher villains. This isn't the first incarnation either. Remember SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA? Pretty much the same bullshit as this article - tried and failed.
      It will be back under a different name, maybe under different pretence, terrorism and child protection are always a good disguise.

  3. Reasonal copyright by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Itâ(TM)s amazing how backwards the copyright laws are and the push from the music, movie and tech industries to make them worse. Twenty years top on the copyright, vetted take down notices, fixed royalty prices at time of filing and there shoukd be a use it or lose it clause too.

    1. Re: Reasonal copyright by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why cant slashdot actually support basic special characters
      â apostrophe
      âoe quote
      Are there more?

    2. Re: Reasonal copyright by mrbester · · Score: 1

      Why is your special apostrophe different to GP’s?

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    3. Re: Reasonal copyright by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No idea. Must be a browser difference? iOS, safari no special keyboards.

    4. Re: Reasonal copyright by butchersong · · Score: 1

      Give them a break... Unicode is still fairly new.

    5. Re: Reasonal copyright by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It does, but not for retards.

    6. Re: Reasonal copyright by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Copying and pasting smart quotes and apostrophes gives this on Android (and there's no Preview on Slashdot's mobile site):

      In return for Trumpâ(TM)s promise to halt military-readiness operations, Kim gave nothing â" no inventory of his nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, nothing beyond North Koreaâ(TM)s decades-old commitment to âoedenuclearizationâ

  4. BMI's explanation by sconeu · · Score: 4, Funny

    How will it benefit internet users?

    Well, it will make our executives a lot of money, and those executives use the Internet, so it benefits internet users.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    1. Re:BMI's explanation by davecb · · Score: 1

      The emphasis may well be toward explaining how it affects money in "the technology sector." rather than benefits to actual humans.

      --
      davecb@spamcop.net
  5. Optics by sjbe · · Score: 1

    The law would have put a greater responsibility on individual websites to check for copyright infringements.

    Rather a substantial understatement there...

    Opponents greeted the decision as a victory. Julia Reda, a Pirate Party MEP who had campaigned against the legislation tweeted: "Great success: Your protests have worked!

    You know calling yourself the "Pirate Party" doesn't really boost your credibility when it comes to issues like copyright infringement. I'm not saying they are wrong but the optics of it aren't super helpful to those who are less invested in the issue - namely most of the general public.

    "We respect the decision... we will work with MEPs over the next weeks to explain how the proposed directive will benefit not just European creativity, but also internet users and the technology sector."

    Translation: "If it wasn't for those meddling kids we would have gotten away with it too!"

    1. Re:Optics by cre1mer · · Score: 1

      You know calling yourself the "Pirate Party" doesn't really boost your credibility when it comes to issues like copyright infringement.

      Argh, matey! Especially when your party doesn't have any real pirates, pirate ships and pirate booty..

    2. Re:Optics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know calling yourself the "Pirate Party" doesn't really boost your credibility when it comes to issues like copyright infringement. I'm not saying they are wrong but the optics of it aren't super helpful to those who are less invested in the issue - namely most of the general public.

      I think you're probably right, but it's not so clear cut.

      "Pirate party" definitely does make a stupid first impression. But even if you're Joe Normal and you keep hearing about forces of evil constantly trying to end the internet, and the Pirate Party just happens to be one of the few forces trying to keep things working, then it becomes normalized. That is, even for the "less invested" public, they're going to get habitually used to hearing that the pirates were the only people who weren't acting crazy. Over a long term it probably even helps to persuade people that piracy is a good idea and that copyright is a bad idea. They might not initially come from that perspective but if the issues keep coming down to extreme "us or them" choices over and over again, then if someone is just lazy and wants to choose sides instead of choosing their position, piracy will come out ahead.

      It's sort of how conservatives end up voting Democrat. You might not agree with Democrats on anything and would prefer to vote for nearly anyone else, but if you're lazy then it might seem like it's the only way to vote against Republicans, since from a conservative viewpoint they're more of "the enemy" than the Democrats are.

      What needs to happen is that more voices than just the pirate party should be heard, so that the masses will see it's not just pirates-vs-copyright but that it's everyone-vs-silly-copyright-laws. Because if you boil it down and over-simplify it, then it seems to just be about piracy (which is a bad idea) but where piracy is the lesser of two evils. People keep forgetting that you don't have to have evil at all (which is why Democrats and Republicans are still things), but it takes a bit more effort to articulate your political beliefs, and that's more than most people are willing to do. Until then, though, "pirates" will continue their growing trend of winding up as "the good guys" in every news story.

  6. BMI's actual quote by chill · · Score: 1

    Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the lawyers of war!

    It is much better in the original Klingon, but the BMI Ferengi won't stoop to speaking in Klingon.

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    1. Re: BMI's actual quote by bestweasel · · Score: 2

      The original Earth quote had "dogs" instead of "lawyers" but it's an easy mistake to make when translating.

    2. Re:BMI's actual quote by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      Havoc! jach, 'ej veS lawyers slip!

      Bing translator does.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  7. the pay to link part by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is particularly galling because it attacks the very nature of the web pages and it's moronic in that the sites being linked to are already receiving a benefit in being linked to (potentially driving clicks to their site)

    put another way, this would harm those sites more than help them because the response would be no more links to their sites, so they wouldn't get the payment they want anyway and now they wouldn't even get the additional click throughs either

    it would also be a huge boon for fake news trolls because now they don't even have to put in the minimal effort to link to some other page, they can just post total rubbish on social media without even dubious sourcing

  8. UK Record labels? by houghi · · Score: 2

    Fuckoof and wait till Brexit is complete and start your 1984 wet dream over there.

    I said it before and I will say it again. What we should do is exchange England and Wales with Canada. Europe keeps Scotland and N-Ireland and gets Canada and Northern America will get England and Wales and can build their own paradise. (probably without any gambling or hookers. Sorry, not sorry)

    It would be much easier to build the wall and the whole world will be paying the Mexicans to build it. After that we can start filling it with the extra water they cause by the melting of the icebergs.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  9. Re: We did it Wikipedia! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So are all lobbiest by that logic. Jimmy Wales didn't bribe anyone though. Your hatred has been recorded along with your ip address, so expect your advertising on your smart devices to reflect this

  10. Never forget by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The good guys need to be lucky every time. The bad guy only needs to be lucky once.

    1. Re:Never forget by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      100 million times THIS.

      The initial shot failed, the cartel will now switch to a war of attrition method to wear down the general public until finally the law gets rammed through over a holiday weekend when people aren't looking. Most likely with that version of the bill ending up 100x worse than the pile of shit rejected today.

    2. Re:Never forget by Jahta · · Score: 1

      The good guys need to be lucky every time. The bad guy only needs to be lucky once.

      This is why we all need to make sure that our members of parliament (EU and national) are in no doubt about the opposition to this kind of law. Find out how your MEPs voted, and tell the ones who voted for these measures that they are losing your vote; they are up for reelection in 2019.

      And as voting seems to have mainly run along party lines, if your MEP's party supports this then tell their colleagues in your national parliament that it's a vote loser for them too.

  11. What makes you think Canada... by RedK · · Score: 1

    ... wants any part of your failing, debt ridden dictatorship ? Canada is quite happy setting its own policies without being overridden by an unelected foreign political body it has no direct influence over.

    --
    "Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
    Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
    1. Re:What makes you think Canada... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nice try, Theresa, now go back playing monopoly at Downing Street.

    2. Re: What makes you think Canada... by bestweasel · · Score: 0

      Donald used to *love* playing Monopoly but he can't face it anymore. All he sees is:

      "Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200 roubles."
      "Go to jail. Go directly to jail."
      "Go to jail."
      "Go to jail."
      "Go to jail."

  12. An alternate proposal is needed by mysidia · · Score: 1

    Being on the defensive does NOT work for the long run. Ultimately those who oppose the unfettered expansion of copyright and suppression of rights and privileges we enjoy today need to come up with our own proposal to beat them back. An act that will greatly expand fair use and protect the rest of the world from having to enforce these companies' copyrights: while at the same time balancing the copyright so that they cannot reasonably scream "Unfair" ----- we need a proposal that most of the population would be willing to aggressively pledge their support to, even Musicians, Artists, and other creative people that make the copyrightable works,
      So it's gotta be fair ---- but it's gotta be the opposite of these propositions such as "Filtering", or "DMCA-Like" rules that serve to stifle expression and interfere with fair use; We need to put an end to claims against casual Youtubers for "background music",
    and for commercial users, limit them to the ability to claim reasonable royalties based on peak simultaneous views highly restricted in maximum value; recognize the right of the people to share transformative creative expressions like Memes, Etc, without the consent of their originator.

    The EU copyright filtering proposal came up because POWERFUL players are strongly in favor of a law like this one: these are players who don't believe in any kind of fair use and want automatic INDISCRIMINATE blocking of anything based off their famous material -- that they've often already massively profited from: This is about these players' boundless greed, and these powerful heavily funded players are able to make strongly persuasive proposals to legislators who don't necessarily fully understand the negatives of the proposals; then there's a whole system where these players tap their vast wealth resources to manufacture ARTIFICIAL public support for their propositions ---- they have no qualms against bribing politicians with campaign dollars and hiring partners to write letters from millions of fake people and other acts in their favor that involve paid confederates pretending to be concerned citizens.

    The powerful players that want the filtering law are mainly concerned about profits and protecting them -- and they WILL be back with either more proposals, or the same proposal in a same or different forum, with more assets strategically deployed to support proposals in this direction of desired results --- and if Social Media or the World Wide Web or the Internet or something else like that is standing in their way.... they are happy if it gets bulldozed in the process / they'll push ignoring or downplaying the issue at the time of legislation and do whatever is in their power to do what they think protects their profits, even if it side consequences are it DESTROYs massive value for the rest of society and everyone else after the proposal becomes law.

    1. Re:An alternate proposal is needed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      We already had alternative proposals in order to mediate, but they were rejected in the JURI commission. They were probably pretty sure to be able to get the whole package with no compromise.

    2. Re:An alternate proposal is needed by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Get a VPN to the USA and enjoy the internet freedom. Escape the EU gov censorship.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:An alternate proposal is needed by mysidia · · Score: 1

      The next version of the copyright filtering act will probably require VPN detection and blocking as well.

    4. Re:An alternate proposal is needed by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      France and Spain also really need to stop the internet cartoons and memes about their national politics.
      The internet has to be controlled and filtered to prevent such uploads.
      VPN detection could offer the account holder to turn off their VPN. Risk the EU social media account they logged into getting banned on detection of VPN use.
      Want to use EU social media in the EU? Not if any VPN is detected.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  13. If you obsess over the word "pirate" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then your support was never available anyway and not needed. Anyone so easily swayed would never manage to resist propaganda.

  14. Ah yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Sir" Tim, the same idiot who gave us such treasures as little-endian hostnames.

    1. Re: Ah yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How's your world-changing invention coming along?

  15. It was a proposed law with two bad elements in. by Sique · · Score: 4, Informative
    It was not just about turning platform providers into preemptive Copyright cops. There was a second provision: the Ancillary Copyright for press publishers. Similar laws were tried in several EU countries (e.g. Belgium, Spain, Germany), with not much success, as the belgian law is withdrawn, the german version is still enforced, but for EUR 3 million in ligitation cost, it made so far around EUR 20,000 for press editors, and the spanish version caused Google News to no longer listing any spanish publications.

    It was always argued that the large U.S. based internet companies like Google and Facebook would profit from being able to list snippeds of online press articles in their search results, news aggregations and timelines, and thus they should pay the press publishers for the priviledge to get those snippets. As it turned out, the true priviledge was for the press publishers to be listed, because as soon as Google delisted press publishers demanding payments according to the Ancillary Copyright, their traffic numbers plummeted. So Belgium withdrew the law, and in Germany, all press publishers gave Google a free license (and with lawsuits managed to drive all competing news aggregators out of business).

    Now they attempt the same in the whole EU, hoping to get a critical mass large enough to get Google to agree into payments for the little snippets.

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  16. Scotland doesn't want you either. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They were convinced "better together" but then you turned round and said "Nope, better apart".

  17. Sound bites by sjbe · · Score: 1

    "Pirate party" definitely does make a stupid first impression.

    In a sound bite obsessed media culture and a lazy electorate that's probably the only impression you are going to get to make. Sad but true. A complex nuanced argument like copyright is going to be won by the best soundbite with the biggest megaphone even if that argument is breathtakingly wrong.

  18. Clueless about politics by sjbe · · Score: 1

    If you obsess over the word "pirate" Then your support was never available anyway and not needed.

    It's that sort of idiotic and arrogant attitude that resulted folks like Trump getting elected despite spouting breathtakingly idiotic sound bites. Believe it or not, copyright is pretty far down the list of things most people obsess over so a well placed sound bit or two can make a LOT of difference. They don't give a shit about nuance or abstract concepts. In politics you have to play the game and sound bites are part of the game. Calling themselves "pirates" makes it REALLY easy for the opposition to gain votes among the lazy and credulous who comprise a LOT of the voting public.

    Anyone so easily swayed would never manage to resist propaganda.

    Evidently you haven't noticed that vast swaths of the voting public fall into that category.

    1. Re:Clueless about politics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We would have been so much smarter if we had voted for Hillary.

  19. Re:We did it Wikipedia! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jimbo Wales is essentially a dictator.

    What a fucking retard.

  20. Europe by DrYak · · Score: 1

    In a sound bite obsessed media culture and a lazy electorate

    Please notice the TFA is about the EU.
    Although we're undeniably on a downward slope on our side of the Atlantic too,
    things haven't devolved to the kind of shit show that they're having in the US.

    Yet.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Europe by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

      French politics have been a shitshow for 70 years. Italian, even worse. Don't even look at Greece. They've been getting elected on 'larger handouts' for so long, they've broken their economies.

      Germany can only carry Europe so far.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re:Europe by sjbe · · Score: 3, Informative

      Please notice the TFA is about the EU.

      Doesn't make a difference. The only thing that changes is which sound bites work. There is no evidence to suggest that EU voters are substantially let vulnerable to sound bites and lazy journalism than those in the US. Not as if Europe hasn't had their share of breathtakingly horrible leaders within the last century either. Personally I think England and the US voters keep trying to outdo each other in a contest to see who can do the dumbest thing possible.

      GB: "Let's exit this EU thing at huge cost to our economy"
      US: "Hold my beer..." *elects Donald Trump*

    3. Re:Europe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      After Brexit:

      The US and UK are competing to see who can vote in the most self-afflicting way. The UK pulled ahead today, but the US holds the Trump card.

    4. Re:Europe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How did US voters make a mistake electing Trump?

      He is more popular here than Obama. The economy is doing great. We have a conservative supreme court that doesn't just re-write laws to fit some SJW agenda. Somebody actually listens to the voters in middle America! I'm pretty sure Hillary would have been a bigger mistake.

    5. Re:Europe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      GB: "Lets exit this EU thing, as it's been a huge cost to our economy." FTFY

    6. Re: Europe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      GB (the half who voted out): We've seen none of the gains the well-off have seen and the newspapers owned by billionaires and right-wing politicians tell us the rising inequality is all the EU's fault.
      Unfortunately we're not bright or educated enough to know we're being lied to or understand it's the well-off who have stolen the profits of our labours. Besides it's attractive for many of us to be told it's all the foreigners' fault.

  21. Translation of "rejected": by eth1 · · Score: 1

    "This got waaaay too much publicity, and was making us look bad, so we're going to try again later and be more sneaky about it."

  22. *Including the artists*, btw! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The single biggest enemy of the common artist *is* the distributors' privilege industry (as it should be called).

    They do nothing but leech on artists, after their business model of offering distribution and a studio dissolved with the rise of the modern WWW and cheap/free professional-grade software.

    Now they just try to keep a stranglehold on artists that they trap, and leech as much on them as possible. To finance their traditionally massive cocaine abuse.

    I worked in the industry when it all changed. You can ask any exerienced artist what they think of this organized crime of pirates that call others pirates and get called "media industry" wrongly.

  23. Yeah, a measly 27 years. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unicode 1.0 is from 1991. Two years before Doom. The original one.

  24. Neither do file sharers. ThatsTheJoke.gif by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not acting like politicians act, but like humans act, was one of the key selling points of the PP.

    That includes not playing along with choosing politically correct wording.
    And facing bullshit terrorist terms like the *actual* criminals calling file sharers "pirates".

  25. Carry? They CAUSED it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Germany' deliberately used its export economy, to suck the rest of the EU dry.
    Why do you think they keep adding countries like crazy? There was talk of adding countries like Georgia and others deep in Asia?
    The debts of Greece were a deliberate Goldman Sachs job. They "lobbied" (which is another word for what is actually treason, a crime punished by death or 20 years in prison) the Greece government of greedy shitbags to do it and worry later. Now they are off, leaving the blame on the population. Blame fuled by, you guessed it, Goldman Sachs.

    So go back to the basement of your Schützenhaus (where the Nazi flags hang), and keep arguing about voting Af(ascist)D, not realizing they are pro EU/TTIP in their party program, ... and how much you failed at life, if an unwashed illiterate from some Afghan mountan cave can take your job and your girlfriend.

    I'm German. I have seen both Americans and Afghans immigrate, fall in love with our culture, and enrich it with really nice things. With my own eyes. As oppposed to some "news". So ...

    1. Re:Carry? They CAUSED it. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      I have dual German and American citizenship. The Germans are carrying Europe.

      Fuckoff with your Nazi claims. These days anybody that doesn't want to destroy Israel is called a Nazi by pinheaded neo-stalinists. It's backward year.

      There are FAR more Germans in America then vice versa, people continue to vote with their feet. Europe is nice to visit, but only a fool would want to live there.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  26. EU parliament's power by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    EU parliament used its only real power, which is to reject a directive.That does not happen often, and it is a pity that the only elected institution in EU is mostly unable to push its own legislative projects.

  27. Trump vs sanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hi fellow AC! As an outside observer, I'd like you to realise that every claim you just made is incorrect or misleading.

    Trump is not popular, neither in the USA nor abroad. Especially abroad, actually, where he is seen as a dangerous buffoon and a morally poor example.

    Your economy isn't the worst it's been but you have spectacular debt and every time Trump announces a new shot in his trade wars, the stock market wobbles. China could foreclose on you at any time.

    Your supreme court has never had a SJW agenda. Now that the moderate judge has retired, it will, however, be stacked with an ultra-conservative and have an anti-progressive bias. Sad for women and minorities. Good for rich white businessmen, like Trump.

    Trump does not listen! He pretends, for the benefit of the gullible: you.

    Hillary would have been a fine president. Boring, staid, exactly what you needed. You might have got universal health care. You would have had cleaner air. The rest of the world might not now be utterly sick to death of the constant stream of garbage coming from your way. Yes, it could have been a lot better.