Dear EU Politicians: You Really Don't Have To Wreck The Internet

from the don't-wreck-the-internet dept

Wed, Nov 14th 2018 8:00pm — Mike Masnick

Visit DontWreckThe.Net to learn about the EU Copyright Directive »

As you'll recall, back in September, the EU Parliament voted to approve a draft of the EU Copyright Directive, despite it including a bunch of very problematic pieces -- mainly Article 13's mandatory filters and Article 11's snippet tax. What the EU Parliament approved was not the same as what the EU Council of member states had approved, nor what the EU Commission had approved, so now those three bodies have been working on a "trilogue" process to sync up the various versions and come up with a master version that will have to be approved again by all three institutions. There has been a lot of activity in the past few weeks -- and Italy's change of government has made things a bit interesting.

As the Trilogue discussions have continued, we've teamed up with a bunch of platforms and startup organizations both in the EU and the US to make some suggestions. It would probably be best for the internet to drop both Article 11 and Article 13 altogether, but barring that, we have a pretty detailed list of suggestions over at DontWreckThe.Net. As you hopefully see, just by looking at the long list of fixes we're requesting, there are still huge problems with the proposals. Furthermore, given that many of the platforms we've partnered with in developing this list are the ones who will be hardest hit, we're hopeful that the various officials debating this will take notice. Even more important: this is not just about those platforms, but everyone who uses them. If you use Reddit or Patreon or Vimeo, these rules are going to have a massive impact on how you'll be able to interact with the internet going forward. Also, we're asking other organizations to join this project, so if you run an organization that is worried about the impact of Articles 11 or 13, please reach out to us through the site.

And please, EU officials, don't wreck the net.

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Filed Under: article 11, article 13, eu, eu copyright directive, intermediary liability, link tax, upload filters

21 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2018 @ 8:25pm

Euronet?
Wrecking the competition is the first step.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2018 @ 8:53pm

Or they could go ahead and make Google's position and monopoly even more entrenched.

Because that's what out_of_the_blue wanted!
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2018 @ 10:31pm

While I care about this topic deeply, I don't really know what I can do or say to contribute as a U.S. person.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 1:20am

Re:
...lobbying EU politicians seems to be the plan, including direct support from some U.S. folks
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 3:33am

basically, because everything that is going on here is to please the entertainment industries more than any other and in particular Hollywood, the MPAA and RIAA, along with all the various affiliations, it is almost definite that the EU Commission will force the other bodies to do what it wants so as to be able to say it has appeased these industries. it isn't in the least bit interested in the effects had by or on any other user, individual or body, of the Internet as the the whole aim is to give those aforementioned industries complete control over who can use the internet, who can do what on the internet and for permission to have to be gained from those entertainment industries. once gained, the next step will be to start charging for the use of the internet in it's entirety, provided you can get permission (proving what you want to do on the net will be mandatory!)

these industries never thought the internet would take off and poo-pood it away, just as they did when given the chance to use torrents. as the popularity of the internet became more and more obvious and, as usual, these industries realised that yet again they had made a monumental fuck up, just as they did when stopping video recorders and mp3 files, their only option was to try to stop its use. having failed in that, even though they have done irreparable harm to the 'net, to those using it, to families and individuals, even causing deaths because of their continued hounding of some who were doing what the industries disapproved off and then employing the help of governments (as in the case we're discussing), politicians, security forces, police, courts and some individual judges, the only course left was to control the 'net. they have spent decades achieving that, bit by bit and are so close to achieving that goal now do you really think that any notice is going to be taken of anything/anyone that may even delay it, let alone stop it? wake up and smell the coffee! article 11 and article 13 along with anything/everything that can give these industries their ultimate goal is gonna happen!!
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 6:47am

Re:
So you're saying we just all give up and roll over.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 7:08am

Re: Re:
>So you're saying we just all give up and roll over.

I think he's saying that asking pretty please isn't going to work.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 7:08am

bullshit
According to PaulT... The EU (or at least one of its surrounding states) is a bastion of sensible regulatory care and perfection.

Keep up the delusion PaulT... Like I said... just give it a some time you will be looking like the US in one fashion or another soon enough! Don't forget to take a big whiff of those beloved "regulations" you pine for!
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 7:12am

So, switching from “Don’t Break the Internet” to “Don’t Wreck the Internet”, gotcha.

I’m sure absolutely no one will realize they’re being bullshitted again...
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 7:48am

Re: Re: Re:
Okay. What's the action that we should be taking instead?
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 7:48am

Re:
How's that John Steele defense fund coming along, bro?
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 8:16am

Of course they don't have to wreck the internet. They merely want to...
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Les B Calm, 15 Nov 2018 @ 10:21am

Don't FUD teh internets with DOOOOM!
And then use that to promote yourself and pals as champions / guardians of all that's piratey.

Actually, Masnick, why don't you just come out and admit that you want to do away with ALL copyright? You're not fooling anyone after 20 years, just look silly, especially when try to promote little bands of dopers calling for free entertainments.

Those who create the content have ALL the rights. If you pirates want content cheaper, focus on getting everyone to pay something. -- Oh, right, that didn't work with the "Man From Earth Two", now did it? When are you going to cover that again? Never is my bet, it's absolutely clear that advocating pirate channels doesn't bring money even with a wanted product. -- And SO therefore, enforcement is required for the content industries to continue.

This won't harm or even affect ME because I don't steal content. Well, so far as reduces the amount of crap that you pirates consume, gets you couch pumpkins out of your deep grooves, I bet it makes for a better world.
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Les B Calm, 15 Nov 2018 @ 10:28am

Back from a glance at the site.
First sentence has the only real take-away, rest is just more FUDDY assertions:

We should be very careful before making significant changes to fundamental concepts of how the internet works.

To which I ask WHY? NO ONE CONSULTED ME OR CREATORS ON IMPLEMENTING THE PRESENT SYSTEM! AT BEST JUST A BUNCH OF DREAMERS ACCEPTED THE PROMISES OF THOSE WHO SAW A WAY TO GRIFT OF EXISTING CONTENT, A SUPER-VCR SYSTEM!

We now know how the current system works in practice to favor pirates and divert income from creators. YOU must make a positive case for CONTINUING.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 10:35am

Re: Back from a glance at the site.
Visit the sites Like YouTube, Jamendo etc, and count how many self publishers are making a living from their creativity. Those not making money from this explosion of creativity are the old school publishers, who relied being the only rout to publication, allowing them to male most of the money from the small percentage of works submitted that they choose to publish.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 10:39am

Re: Back from a glance at the site.
Yes! A super-VCR system! VCRs of course being the technology that the entertainment industry fought tooth and nail against and which then, a few years later, turned home video into their single largest revenue stream and created an incredibly lucrative market, essentially birthing the modern idea of "home entertainment" which continues to line their pockets to this day.
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Andrew, 15 Nov 2018 @ 10:55am

Re:
Get people talking about this issue and get other UK citizens like myself talking about this and have them write to their MEPS complaining. Sign petitions. Spread the word.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 6:11pm

Re:
In the end they will never be able to get complete control the internet and they are not close to achieving that goal, There is any notice is going to be taken of anything/anyone that may even delay it and it's called keep fighting and ignoring people like you.

Article 11 and article 13 along with anything/everything that can give these industries their ultimate goal is NOT gonna happen.

Anonymous no matter where you comment here or on Torrentfreak I will call out your defeatist attitude until you get up and fight with the rest of us.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2018 @ 6:14pm

Re: Re:
No we keep fighting!
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Bergman (profile), 16 Nov 2018 @ 11:44am

Re:
Why not? People from Europe routinely weigh in with their opinions on US issues.
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Masahiko, 20 Nov 2018 @ 8:32pm

Protest against European copyright 'LinkTax' throught blockchain
I was working on a blockchain project and noticed that my project could be used for protest against European copyright 'LinkTax'. The name of the project is 'LinkRight' which is a blockchain based on Bitcoin source with increased message size (2826 btyes) for each transaction. The message is engraved in the non-modifiable blockchain and the time histories of all the messages or events are kept in the blockchain. No one can delete their messages and deny what did they said. This prevent some demagogues who had written something in Twitter and then removed them afterward.

If you are interested to put your messages in the LinkRight blockchain. I can send you some LinkRight tokens to start with.

The screenshot of the LinkRightJ can be found in the following link:
https://github.com/masahikohaniu/linkrightj-binary/blob/master/LinkRightMessage.png

The binary can be downloaded from the link as below.
https://github.com/masahikohaniu/linkrightj-binary
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