Single European Copyright Title On the Horizon 94
presroi (657709) writes "It has been 13 years after the last harmonization effort of copyright within the European Union and this period might soon be over. After the election of a new European Parliament in May this year, Jean-Claude Juncker has been nominated to become the new President of the European Commission. He has named a unified copyright his top priority, a statement repeated today at a hearing before the Greens/EFA group in the European parliament (transcript of the question by MEP Julia Reda and his answer in German, Video recording). These statements are coinciding with the upcoming release of a report by the General Directorate in charge of copyright, of which an advanced draft has been already leaked to the internet. The report analyzes four possible policy options, one of which is the introduction of a Single EU Copyright title."
Re:And lemme guess at the "improvements" (Score:4, Interesting)
You could read it, if you can translate from political doublespeak. I couldn't find anything about term extension of penalties, though there is a bit in there about enforcement. As best I can try to follow the semi-english obstruction, it seems to be proposing requiring ISPs and banks to take an active role in blocking infringing websites and cutting off their funding.
might not be such a bad idea (Score:3, Interesting)
As someone who deal with copyright issues on a daily basis (i work in publishing, for the wargamers community). Dealing with disharmonized laws in Europe is a bit of a nightmare (i m based in France and recently had to deal with copyright issues in UK, turned out to be a bit of a nightmare).
A unified law in Europe would help my dealings with authors.
However i m sure they will put some insane things in it, the problem being that we basicaly got no saying when it comes to EU laws.
Re:Skimmed through (Score:2, Interesting)
3.2.6: Extend the blank media levy to Europe-wide, rather than country-by-country.
I'm surprised copyright owners are still pushing for that since it has already come to bite them in the back in multiple occasions.
In many countries, they're not able to prosecute for non-commercial copyright infringement because of that law. The rationale is that the infringer already paid for his copy in the for of that tax.
It's of course a stupid law and I hate to see it in the proposal, but I can't help but wonder if it won't effectively create a Europe-wide file sharing utopia.
Ahah! just kidding. They'll want to have their cake and eat it too, and our politicians won't stand in the way.
Re: might not be such a bad idea (Score:2, Interesting)
I did participate in the survey, however a survey is just a consultation , even if the majority would say they wanted to reduce the lenght of copyright to say 10 years they wouldnt be under any obligation to follow it. EU has an history of asking and doing the opposite, hence why i say we actually have no say.