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European Parliament Votes in Favor of Controversial Copyright Laws (engadget.com)

The EU has voted on copyright reform, with members of European Parliament this time voting in favor of the extremely controversial Articles 11 and 13. The 438 to 226 vote, described as "the worst possible outcome" by some quarters, could have significant repercussions on the way we use the internet. From a report: The Copyright Directive, first proposed in 2016, is intended to bring the issue of copyright in line with the digital age. Articles 11 and 13 have caused particular controversy, with many heralding their adoption as the death of the internet. Article 11, also known as the "link tax", would require online platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay media companies to link to their content, while Article 13, the "upload filter", would force them to check all content uploaded to their sites and remove any copyrighted material. How this will affect regular internet users is still subject to debate, but it could seriously limit the variety of content available online -- and it could pretty much spell the end of memes.

Unsurprisingly, these parts of the bill have been met with opposition from digital rights groups, computer scientists, academics, platforms such as Wikipedia and even human rights groups. Supporters, however, say the consequences of the measures are being blown out of proportion, and that the provisions are merely intended to give creators and smaller outlets the opportunity to reclaim the value of their work.
More details on Reuters.

25 of 491 comments (clear)

  1. Brexit by cirby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...suddenly doesn't look quite so bad, does it?

    1. Re:Brexit by markdavis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >"...suddenly doesn't look quite so bad, does it?"

      That is exactly what I was thinking.

      >summary: "with many heralding their adoption as the death of the internet."

      Well, no, but it might be the death of the "internet" in the EU. At some point they are going to go too far (this might be it) and companies will just give up and start blocking the EU and it will be like the great firewall of China, except in reverse. Then the EU can live in their own "digital utopia world" with as much censorship, manipulation, taxes, and control over information that they want.

    2. Re:Brexit by stealth_finger · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...suddenly doesn't look quite so bad, does it?

      We get blue passports and memes, fucking hell yeah! Brexit is paying out big time :|

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    3. Re:Brexit by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You might have more of a point if the UK weren't actively trying to clamp down on the internet in their own various ways.

    4. Re:Brexit by theM_xl · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You had a good comment, and then you just had to throw in that last sentence...

    5. Re:Brexit by lucasnate1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't fucking understand how copyrights now trump everything else

      Because the west bases more and more of its economy on intellectual property while the production of physical property is moved to the third world.

    6. Re:Brexit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Translation... My fascist view of how the world should be doesn't hold up when debated openly. I am hoping we get censorship en mass so that my viewpoints are not questioned and debated. I am unable to win honest debates and am tired of it being pointed out that I resort to name calling and idiocy once I failed to make any intelligent arguments.

      I think that just about sums up the left these days. Thanks for your worthless input and letting us know you are all for a dictatorship and free ideas and democracy should be banned. Please keep your views to the EU and keep on letting the UK know brekexit was a GREAT idea.

    7. Re:Brexit by lucasnate1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How is this law going to censor the nuts you are talking about? The only effect of this law will be to prevent small companies from opening interactive sites, reducing the internet gradually into television. The nuts will still have their place, because they bring eyeballs.

    8. Re:Brexit by MobyDisk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think that is a actually a registered Slashdot user. He goes around making these really insightful posts then ending them with an irrelevant anti-Semitic remark. I'm trying to search my post history because I know I've replied to him before. It exactly fits the pattern. I just can't seem to find the post. There is a part of me that wants to make a bot that re-posts his posts but without the last sentence. I bet it would get quite a lot of karma, and bring some of the intelligent points back into the conversation.

    9. Re:Brexit by jwhyche · · Score: 3

      Just like GDPR, you have to get with the program no matter where you actually are.

      I assume that is the comment you are talking about. What is the issue with it? Pleading ignorance here.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    10. Re:Brexit by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Informative

      Just read the law itself, it's the exact of what the summery states. The link's in that article and it also explains in small words that this is a link tax. It's an exact mirror of the existing German law that does the same thing.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
  2. It will still apply to UK by aepervius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Until Brexit all laws voted apply to UK. And if you think for a SECOND that the UK government will remove that particular one post-brexit, when they will be lobbied left and right to keep it by content holder, I have a bridge to sell you in London. Cheap.

    --
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    1. Re:It will still apply to UK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      This isn't a law yet. It is a Directive. Each member state must implement it via their own laws into their legal system. Most member states take their time in doing so with directives. I doubt the UK will be in a hurry passing such a law before BREXIT.

    2. Re:It will still apply to UK by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's not a bad thing when the only roads lead you off a cliff.

      --
      No sig today...
  3. Pay to link? by stealth_finger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    News sites will be rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of being paid to be linked to, in reality what's going to happen is those links will stop when news aggregators etc decide fuck this. Then we'll be in for the crying that their business is going even further down the pan.

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    1. Re:Pay to link? by dwywit · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Exactly. Google et al response will be "we'll pay you for links to your content, here's an invoice for putting your website on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or nth page of search results"

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    2. Re:Pay to link? by eth1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Exactly. Google et al response will be "we'll pay you for links to your content, here's an invoice for putting your website on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or nth page of search results"

      Actually, Google's (and other search engines, at least) response to this should be, "we're never paying for links. If you ever bother us about paying for links, we'll handle it by removing your base domain from our database completely, and you can languish in obscurity until you die because no one can find you."

  4. Re:Not only the death of Internet by ooloorie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It also marks the day where the EU finally succumbed to the power of the copyright lobby and became a nest of utter corruption just like their US counterparts.

    Are you kidding? The copyright lobby and their insane demands started in Europe. The US managed to avoid their madness for a long time and didn't implement the Berne convention until 1989. One particularly evil aspect of the Berne convention was the removal of the requirement for copyright registration.

  5. The FPV industry was destroyed in EU already by Max_W · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The EU accepted the rule that the FPV, first-person-view, transmitter of an RC aircraft, or a drone, cannot have the power more than 25 mW, while a smartphone can have the transmitting power of 1000, or even 3000 mW.

    It basically destroyed the emerging UAV & FPV market and the industry in the EU countries. It made existing FPV drones unreliable and dangerous, while the FPV videolink starts to break at about 100 meters.

  6. It will come down to who has more influence, by dwywit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The content owners, or the content indexers?

    Content owners like large media companies are still desperately clinging to the past.

    Google and other online gatekeepers hold sway over large percentages of the audience.

    I eagerly await a final smackdown for Murdoch & friends, when the reality of distributed information finally hits home. Hits home to them of course, the rest of us already know.

    Google and others have no obligation to list anything. If they decide that it costs too much to link items to media websites, well... tough. The other media companies will gladly waive costs if it means their content gets listed at the top of page 1 while Murdoch & co are relegated to page 2 or 3.

    --
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  7. Re:This is what happens when young people don't vo by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You assume that young people will do any better or that they have a "real" understanding of the internet. If you look at some of the groups of young people that are screaming the loudest, they'd seem to be the biggest censors of the internet with their demand for safe spaces and a ban on any expression that hurts their feelings. There are also a lot of young people that are going to throw in with the right-wing anti-immigration parties that are starting to spring up because they see that as more important than something going on with the internet. I don't know if those groups even have any opinion on this particular topic, but I don't think getting the younger voters involved will do anything.

    In the U.S. the joke (from about two decades ago) about younger people voting was that it was the younger college voters in Minnesota that got Jesse Ventura elected. If you're not familiar with him, he's a bit of a conspiracy nut among other things. Probably an okay guy to be friends with, just not what I would consider governor material. I think the youth vote was also up in the 2016 election and we ended up with Trump, so I don't see it making a difference in this case either.

  8. Re:Not only the death of Internet by ooloorie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Presumably this was because most of Europe have proportional election systems with several alternatives to pick from and plenty of opportunity to punish politicians who were too obviously on the take.

    The proportional election system in Europe does the opposite: it allows parties to shield politicians from the voters; meaning, powerful party figures who have fallen out of favor with voters are simply moved from a direct mandate to a party position.

    Furthermore, the parliamentary system in Europe has resulted in numerous extremists and dictators taking over, foremost Hitler; people like that have no chance under the US system.

    And European governments are far more under the control of large corporations than the US government.

  9. Re:This is what happens when young people don't vo by caseih · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nah the Trump vote came mainly from grumpy old white people. The youth vote would have gone to Bernie Sanders, but I suspect most of those who would have voted Bernie ended up not voting at all. The ideals of socialism seem to appeal most strongly to the youth, who are still idealistic, with a strong sense of morality (as they see it).

  10. Re:Not only the death of Internet by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Furthermore, the parliamentary system in Europe has resulted in numerous extremists and dictators taking over, foremost Hitler; people like that have no chance under the US system.

    ahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahha

  11. Re: No More Shuffling Around? by sittingnut · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ode to joy existed before eu and will exist long after the demise of that undemocratic bureaucratic authoritarian state with its out of touch unelected leaders.