Article 13 made it through

[pwired]

All right guys, another blow to the internet freedom. The united states of europe has voted for Article 13 and made it a fact.

This is of course bad for innovation because little companies are getting a hard time to compete with the dominant platforms. Also independent content makers such as musicians and vloggers will have only a few dominant platforms left to distribute their work. The dominant platforms will get huge power to control public communication and discussions. Less freedom of expression and public discussions and more conformity to what is acceptable to the status quo. Here is a good example. Remember how Apple kicked Alex Jones from the internet ? Only a few days after that, Youtube, Facebook, Spotify and Twitter followed. We'll wasn't that a coincedence, right ? It only shows that these dominant platforms rule the same status quo and the same what is acceptable, instead of ruling their own interpretations of freedom of expression, choice and opinion. These dominant platforms have turned themselves into decision makers ! Deciding for us the people what we should see and hear and what not. If I don't want to see or hear or do agree or don't agree with Alex Jones then that decision is for us to make and not Apple, Youtube, Facebook, etc. It is not about Alex Jones and the content he brings to the public. It is about big platforms taking away our freedom of choice and our freedom of decision what we can see, hear or agree upon on the internet.

This is in dutch so google translate it to english:
https://www.nu.nl/internet/5810511/brussel-stemt-voor-nieuwe-auteursrechtenwet-met-uploadfilter.html
https://www.bitsoffreedom.nl/2019/03/26/europees-parlement-stemt-voor-artikel13-en-nu/

 

[wbmnfktr]

A sad day for the internet, the EU, the democracy, and so much more.

I don't know anything about any #article13 discussions, protests or media coverage in Spain or anywhere else but at least here in Germany - especially in the last weeks and days - the way of communication from politicians towards protestors, their statements against protests, and media coverage that supports that copyright directive were kind of shocking. 

They said some really weird things like...

• Online-protesters were bots.
• Mailings were from Google (as most of those mails came from gmail.com addresses).
• Those on the streets were paid [from big US companies].
• ... and so on

Yet another bad aftertaste especially for Germany and our politicians: 

https://edition.faz.net/faz-edition/wirtschaft/2019-03-26/f30a5870c08cc1e1b4524c1be19d1faf/?GEPC=s3

 

Maybe I never fully realized that degree of misleasing information from politicians and media but now I'm not only upset but actually really p*ssed.

There seems to be a last option left but I really don't know if this will ever happen but... maybe. 

 

Back to your topic: those already big platforms will do fine with that. YouTube already has its Content ID system in place and therefore can offer APIs to those who will need it in the future. At least for video material. But the main issue I have with this copyright directive is this argument "Copyright-holders and creators should earn money with their work!" which is totally fine by all means. But that directive will not help any content creator on any plattform.

How could it?

Independent writers, musicians, DJs, fotographers, even programmers will still have the problem to find all those pirated copies of their work. They won't earn more money. They still have to prove their copyright claims. But on the other hand publishers got some more power to bypass money from the real creators. And they got their link tax foundation they always asked for.

But... there is a positive side-effect. I learned to look closer. I learned to trust less. I learned to think more than twice. I learned who might not be on my side. And I learned who to vote for the next election.

 

Regarding Alex Jones and de-platforming:
That was never a real topic here in Germany at all. At least I saw only very few articles or side-notes somewhere or at the bottom of a newsfeed. That's it. And if you find anything about it, they applaud about it because he is some kind of a bad person.

This narrative or bias at Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, [name more here] and the banning of people from their platform wasn't invented by those platforms. They would be doing totally fine even with all of those now banned people. Maybe even better. It was cultivated over the last few years.

 

[pwired]

well said @wbmnfktr

[szabesz]

On 3/26/2019 at 7:10 PM, wbmnfktr said:

Independent writers, musicians, DJs, fotographers, even programmers will still have the problem to find all those pirated copies of their work. They won't earn more money. They still have to prove their copyright claims.

It is worth noting that in the music industry only the most popular artists gain money (and a lot), anyone else is left in the dust as no one cares when their creative work is "stolen". Probably the same mechanism will be put in practice in this case too. Copyright fee on blank CDs, tapes and such? These guys work hard to rip us off.

Edited March 27, 2019 by szabesz
typos

[wbmnfktr]

It's almost the same with writers and (freelance) journalists. They get paid either by (a low) hourly rate or article-based or only a one-time fee. They often sometimes (kind of) sell their copyright and transfer their "possible future profits" based on views or re-prints of their work the big publishers. And with this new foundation publishers' options for bypassing money got even more easier in some cases.

Regarding copyright fee... that's already in place since at least 2008.

I don't know how it's called in Hungary but here it is called Urheberrechtsabgabe/Pauschalabgabe - see Wikipedia (DE) more more details.

[FrancisChung]

What does it mean in terms of Web Developers & the Web Sites they make?
Do we need to be implementing some sort of Copyright checks everywhere?

[LostKobrakai]

9 hours ago, FrancisChung said:

Do we need to be implementing some sort of Copyright checks everywhere?

That depends on how the regulations are actually translated into law in the european countries (each need to do that on their own). But I'd say as soon as the sharing part of the uploaded data is a primary goal you're very likely to need to do so. I still hope things like plain user images won't be inclueded. Iirc some of the politicians said in an interview that e.g. tinder would not be affected, which keeps that hope up a little bit ?

[szabesz]

9 hours ago, FrancisChung said:

Do we need to be implementing some sort of Copyright checks everywhere?

All this issue is still muddy (as ususal....): https://www.i-programmer.info/news/81-web-general/12643-eu-copyright-directive-approved.html

"This has been picked up by Florian Mueller on his Foss Patents site. In a post with the title, Even after today's EU Parliament vote, we can still kill Article 13 through pressure on German government to prevent formal adoption by EU Council,..."

also:

"As we've previously pointed out these concessions are very much open to interpretation leading to uncertainly that will undermine the Internet."