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Copyright Industries Reveal Their Ultimate Goal: An Internet Where Everything Online Requires A License From Them


steven36

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from the now-would-be-a-good-time-to-stop-it-happening dept

 

https://s7d6.turboimg.net/sp/136a4e9b6a0b7c343cef3065a4183984/Flag_of_Copyright_Europe.png

 

 

Yesterday, Mike took apart an extraordinarily weak attempt by the UK's music collection society, PRS for Music, to counter what it claimed were "myths" about the deeply-harmful Article 13 of the proposed EU Copyright Directive. On the same day, the Guardian published a letter from the PRS and related organizations entitled "How the EU can make the internet play fair with musicians". It is essentially a condensed version of the "myth-busting" article, and repeats many of the same fallacious arguments. It also contains some extremely telling passages that are worth highlighting for the insights that they provide into the copyright industries' thinking and ultimate goal. Here is the main thrust of the letter:

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This is not about censorship of the internet, as the likes of Google and Facebook would have you believe. The primary focus of this legislation is concerned with whether or not the internet functions as a fair and efficient marketplace -- and currently it doesn't.

Once again, there is no attempt to demonstrate that Article 13 is not about censorship, merely an assertion that it isn't, together with the usual claim that it's all being orchestrated by big US Internet companies. The fact that over two-thirds of a million people have signed an online petition calling for the "censorship machine" of Article 13 to be stopped rather punctures that tired argument.

 

More interesting is the second sentence, which essentially confirms that for the recording industry, the Copyright Directive -- and, indeed, the Internet itself -- is purely about getting as much money as possible. There is no sense that there are other important aspects -- like encouraging ordinary people to express themselves, and to be creative for the sheer joy of creating, or in order to amuse and engage with friends and strangers. The fact that all these non-commercial uses will be adversely affected by Article 13 is irrelevant to the recording industry, which seems to believe that making a profit takes precedence over everything else. However, even if they choose to ignore this side of the Internet, the signatories of the letter are well-aware that there is a huge backlash against the proposed law precisely because it is a threat to this kind of everyday online use. Attempting to counter this, they go on:

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It is important to recognise that article 13 of the proposed EU copyright directive imposes no obligation on users. The obligations relate only to platforms and rightsholders. Contrary to some sensationalist headlines, internet memes will not be affected, as they are already covered by exceptions to copyright, and nothing in the proposed article will allow rightsholders to block the use of them.

Techdirt pointed out yesterday why the first part of that is intellectually dishonest. The Copyright Directive won't impose obligations on users directly, but on the platforms that people use, which amounts to the same thing in practice. The letter then trots out the claim that Internet memes will not be affected, and specifically says this is because they are already covered by EU exceptions to copyright.

 

This is simply not true. Article 5 of the EU's 2001 Directive on the "harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society" lays down that "Member States may provide for exceptions or limitations", including "for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche". However, that is optional, not compulsory. In fact, nineteen EU Member States -- including the EU's most populous country, Germany -- have chosen not to provide an exception for parody. Even assuming that memes would be covered by parody exceptions -- by no means guaranteed -- they are in any case illegal in 19 EU nations.

 

Licensing is not an option here. There are many diverse sources for the material used in memes, most of which have no kind of organization that could give a license. The only way for online companies to comply with Article 13 would be to block all memes using any kind of pre-existing material in those 19 countries without a parody exception. Worse: because it will be hard to apply different censorship rules for each EU nation, it is likely that the upload filters will block all such memes in the whole EU, erring on the side of caution. It will then be up to the person whose meme has been censored to appeal against that decision, using an as-yet undefined appeals mechanism. The chilling effect this "guilty until proven innocent" approach will have on memes and much else is clear.

 

The blatant misinformation about whether memes would be blocked is bad enough. But in many ways, the most shocking phrase in the letter is the following:

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Actually, article 13 makes it easier for users to create, post and share content online, as it requires platforms to get licences, and rightsholders to ensure these licences cover the acts of all individual users acting in a non-commercial capacity.

There, in black and white, is the end-game that the recording industry is seeking: that every online act of individual users, even the non-commercial ones, on the major platforms must be licensed. But the desire to control the online world, and to dictate who may do what there, is not limited to the recording companies: it's what all the copyright industries want. That can be seen in Article 11 of the Copyright Directive -- the so-called "snippet tax" -- which will require licensing for the use by online sites of even small excerpts of news material.

 

It's also at the root of the core problem with Article 3 of the proposed EU law. This section deals with the important new field of text and data mining (TDM), which takes existing texts and data, and seeks to extract new information by collating them and analyzing them using powerful computers. The current Copyright Directive text allows TDM to be carried out freely by non-profit research organisations, on material to which they have lawful access. However, companies must pay publishers for a new, additional, license to carry out TDM, even on material they have already licensed for traditional uses like reading. That short-sighted double-licensing approach pretty much guarantees that AI startups, which typically require frictionless access to large amounts of training data, won't choose to set up shop in the EU. But the publishing industry never cares about the collateral damage it inflicts, provided it attains its purely selfish goals.

 

Although it's rather breathtaking to see the copyright world openly admit that its ultimate aim is to turn the Internet into a space where everything is licensed, we shouldn't be surprised. Back in 2013, Techdirt wrote about the first stages of the EU's revision of its copyright law. One preliminary initiative was called "Licences for Europe", and its stated aim was to "explore the potential and limits of innovative licensing and technological solutions in making EU copyright law and practice fit for the digital age". What we are seeing now in the proposed Copyright Directive is simply a fulfillment of these ambitions, long-cherished by the copyright industries. If you aren't happy about that, now would be a good time to tell the EU Parliament to Save Your Internet. It may be your last chance.

 

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I personally think people should have to sit a test before they're able to use the internet, like a driving test and therory test, as I get sick and tired of people hiding behind their keyboard and abusing others..  I also believe their i.p. should be monitored to see if they're undertaking criminal activity.

 

You got nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.

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straycat19
5 hours ago, LeeSmithG said:

I personally think people should ahve to sit a test before they're able to use the internet, like a driving test and therory test, as I get sick and tired of people hiding behind their keyboard and abusing others..  I also beleive their i.p. should be monitored to see if they're undertaking criminal activity.

 

 

I totally agree with your first comment about licensing internet users.  As far as hiding behind a keyboard, it isn't as easy as people think.  VPNs and proxies have proven to be as visible as using their original IP and even TOR has been easily traced the last 3-4  years.  And now Bitcoin transactions can be traced.  At one time in the late 90s I was considering going into the private sector and interviewed with several Fortune 100 companies.  At that time they wouldn't even interview anyone who had any type of certification, since they believed, and a lot still do, that people with certifications spent all their time learning to pass the test and have little real world experience.  We require all prospective employees to take a computer test based on the position they are applying for.  If they fail the test they never get as far as an interview.  Certifications and college educations mean absolutely nothing to us, but strictly computer skills for our departments.  Criminals aren't getting away with anything, they are in a database, it is just a matter of how criminal they are.  At some point if they rise near the top of the list they will be taken down, otherwise the small time script kiddies and hacker wannabes are left to their childish and menial pursuits.

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5 hours ago, straycat19 said:

 

I totally agree with your first comment about licensing internet users.  As far as hiding behind a keyboard, it isn't as easy as people think.  VPNs and proxies have proven to be as visible as using their original IP and even TOR has been easily traced the last 3-4  years.  And now Bitcoin transactions can be traced.  At one time in the late 90s I was considering going into the private sector and interviewed with several Fortune 100 companies.  At that time they wouldn't even interview anyone who had any type of certification, since they believed, and a lot still do, that people with certifications spent all their time learning to pass the test and have little real world experience.  We require all prospective employees to take a computer test based on the position they are applying for.  If they fail the test they never get as far as an interview.  Certifications and college educations mean absolutely nothing to us, but strictly computer skills for our departments.  Criminals aren't getting away with anything, they are in a database, it is just a matter of how criminal they are.  At some point if they rise near the top of the list they will be taken down, otherwise the small time script kiddies and hacker wannabes are left to their childish and menial pursuits. 

Here it is 4 of July a Holiday in the USA and  all you have to  do is talk about you're work  that is 1000s of miles away from 99% percent of us and there no chance of us ever going to work there even if you really have a job and just don't be making stuff up again because  you are known to get caught in quite a few lies. And you are and idiot if you think they will ever get rid of hackers they existed  every since 1903  since the beginning of tech  wireless telegraphy technology. You will be dead and gone and they still will be kids hacking into things. You will be done wasted you're whole life wishing for something that never will happen because every nation state has hackers working for them .  What is it bro is  it you just can't except the world  for how it really is, even the police know they will  never end crime and they dont want  too because they be out of a job ..    Or is it that you work for one of  those California companies that sell people on fake ideas  tell they get busted for fraud ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_computer_security_hacker_history

 

PS: The police never stops crimes from happening hardly ever and if there lucky they will catch the person who done it after a crime is committed if it's serious enough for them to pursue even,  but there is 100s of thousands of murders that go unsolved in the USA tell  this day and  you think all the Police need to worry about is computer crimes? In the real world many live by the law of the Jungle and will kill you for a crack rock and they will knock you in the head and take what you got. but all you worry about is a fairytale world of the internet? I been on the internet many years and were I live  there has never been no big news related to computer crimes,  the police really don't care they have bigger fish to fry than script kiddies.   Some of my family died due to living by the law of the jungle and street life and you set back in you're nice house , with a good job and talk about how the world should be , but Mr. your just delusional. if they ruin internet were it becomes wall to wall paywalls people will have to get a life and get off of it is all.  Then crime will rise in the streets again because people will be looking for something to do. But if all these sites start charging you money for everything  you can bet one thing the hackers will be in the background cashing in . Even the Government  is not immune to hackers there info gets stole all the time and they steal info all the time because the Government are part of the problem  and run state funded hacker groups  .Do you ever read the news?

 

I will just use some web site in Iran or something to get free entertainment  they don't bother me. The web scene has had there crack distro in Iran for many years now and they even say TPB is hosted in Vietnam. I belong to like 3 forums in Asia , who could care less about USA  and EU copyright laws for a lot of years now this is the  WWW World Wide Web. There  is many torrent sites in Asia too the USA and EU are not the only places with web hosting .  There many piracy websites in countries were  piracy is just a way of life to them.

 

Quote

The terms piracy and theft are often associated with copyright infringement. The original meaning of piracy is "robbery or illegal violence at sea", but the term has been in use for centuries as a synonym for acts of copyright infringement

 They used the term piracy  for hundreds of years now so  copyright infringement predates hacking even so that is something that is bigger than the internet it started out offline so they just crazy if they think it will ever stop, But then again the i think the EU is counting on it so they can cash in on it.

 

If this passes they going make every site have to put in DRM and things and pay a royalty and sites that dont have the money  or host warez and things will end up blocking the EU just like many sites are blocking the EU right now because they dont make enough money from the EU for it too matter. It's cheaper  to block than it is pay to upgrade to the anti piracy filters.

 

US sites continue to block European visitors post-GDPR

https://digiday.com/media/u-s-sites-continue-block-european-visitors-post-gdpr/

 

You think Filelockers want block places ,you dont know the facts many of them blocked the US off and on for years . But i hear some people  that run websites say they don't care because they don't live in the EU and if the EU don't like the way they run there website the EU can block them witch they already do block many warez sites. Germany  and other EU countries  have had a problem with YouTube for years for not getting a kickback so they have things in place were they can block them from seeing certain videos  and also the uploader can block other countries but theirs as well.

 

 

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6 hours ago, steven36 said:

Some of my family died due to living by the law of the jungle and street life

This is tragic and I offer my sincere condolences.

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8 hours ago, steven36 said:

Some of my family died due to living by the law of the jungle and street life and you set back in you're nice house , with a good job and talk about how the world should be , but Mr. your just delusional.

 

Sorry dear bro :( My condolences too :( 

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Hiding behind their keyboard means they think they can be hidden.

I started using the internet around 1991, it was quiet and very friendly, till the U.K. computers became cheaper and freeserve came around, this was a disk given away by Curry's an electronics high street company where it was six (6) pence per minute peak and one (1) pence per minute off peak.

 

It attracted the dregs of society that in 1995 when Yahoo arrived then chat rooms they would type hate, racism and abuse people.

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