Eurorights Launched 22
LarsG writes: "Eurorights is an european open community effort similar to OpenLaw. The main goal is to provide a central european resource to gather information and craft legal arguments to make sure that the upcoming copyright directive in EU does not become a new DMCA." Best of luck. You've got an uphill battle in front of you.
Re:Euro DMCA (Score:2)
Re:Euro DMCA (Score:3)
I don't really see the need for standardized European copyright law. It would be better to let each member state decide what laws were appropriate for its conditions. That would lead to better-quality, more friendly laws and competition between member states to make the best environment for business. All that the Commission would need to do is make sure that countries don't discriminate against copyrighted works created in other member states, treating them with exactly the same protection as those created at 'home'.
Too bad we had no such thing in USA in 1995. (Score:1)
If we had, we might not have the DMCA now.
Have to think about this. It may be disirable to start such an orginization now.
On the other hand, what may be in order is simply more support to the EFF and the ACLU.
Re:This is IMPORTANT (Score:2)
Sorry about that. The directive has already been accepted by the EU Parliament, and from my understanding it will be hard to make wide-ranging amendments to the directive without public outcry. We're short on time, so we have to get started asap.
This is not necessarily because I share the RIAAs moral values, or microsofts ideas about business ethics, but for media, see above and for software, it could wreck my business and ultimately me.
This is an important point. Noone is seriously claming that piracy is good, or that creators should not be paid for their works. However, these laws and technical restrictions will kill fair use and give the publisher the power to control how we use works we buy.
To mention a few:
Your right to give or lend a book to someone.
Your right to watch your DVD movie on a laptop.
Your right to preserve and keep the books you buy.
Your right to record a tv broadcast.
Re:not neccessarily uphill... (Score:1)
(http://www.mpa.org/about)
--
Re:not neccessarily uphill... (Score:1)
I'm so sorry, that should be http://www.mpaa.org/about/ [mpaa.org].
Re:not neccessarily uphill... (Score:1)
The negative feed-back loop here is that it is precisely the Media based MegaCorps, whose brief it is to inform the public, who have the most to gain by these kinds of laws. Funny that they should prefer to keep the public in an uproar about 'Law & Order' rather than IP law, isn't it?
Perhaps I was being too negative before, after all the Net does provide us with a new opportunity to engage in meaningful 'communicative action,' as projects such as OpenLaw and the present one demonstrate. Clearly this is not to the liking of MegaCorp(TM), (witness the 'channel' metaphor in which a certain OS in cooperation with certain Media Corps tried to clothe the Web). We must beware (if there is anything we can do about it) that the digital legislation now being lobbied for, does not have the effect of limiting our communication. This is the major concern, for instance, of legislation such as the Australian censorship laws -- making ISPs liable for any offensive material which may reside on their servers, may, in the long run, make hosting USENET news an impossibility in .au (I hope not!). Remember too, the senior Murdoch exec, who, only half jokingly, described the Australian government as "a wholly owned subsidiary of News Inc."
Re:not neccessarily uphill... (Score:2)
When you are up against organised cartels like that of Disney, Sony, MGM, Paramount, Fox, Universal, Warner [mpa.org], not to mention the host of other MegaCorps who have interests in usurious IP legislation, individuals (ie. natural persons) will not be heard. Face it the 'citizen' and democracy are redundant, only the MegaCorp and what is being marketed as "free trade" (as if they would tolerate a market that really was free!) matter anymore. Resistance is futile!
My, I'm in a negative mood tonight ... Umm, best of luck guys! It will be an uphill battle.
Euro rights - collaboration (Score:1)
In this atmosphere, Europe have sent the legal guys back to the drawing board and now commercial corporates and the open source community must collaborate to define new and desirable patent laws. In other words, the European government is devoted to introducing patent laws which will make everybody (well, hopefully) happy.
In my opinion, I think the battle for this lies in the making of reasonable concessions - quite democratic is it not?
Re:2nd prist prost? (Score:1)
Which spelling checker are you?
Hallelujah, brother (Score:1)
This is already happening, but so slowly we don't notice it. Ostensibly to appear more "user-friendly", computers now come with Windows pre-installed, with no Windows CD, just a "Restore kit".
Wow, don't even get me started. When I ordered my neato 3'000 quid Dell laptop (+# whatever for Win2K) I got one of those thingies. Now, this renders this paid for license useless. I have a 5 gig Windoze partition to edit DOCuments on a train ride and was seriously considering a Linux only laptop instead of forking another 100 quid for a W2K upgrade for my (hear, hear) legal NT license. I cannot have a dual boot with that utter piece of trash CD that Dell ships on behalf of Microsoft. A polite letter to Dell on the subject went unanswered, which I consider rotten customer care. And don't even get me started on Winmodems. They suck away CPU cycles and essentially represent a piece of shit software.
Furthermore, you will be forced to watch the adverts (leaving the room whilst the adverts are playing being in breach of the licence you implicitly agreed to by playing the disc)
Man, you're a cynic with a problem. The problem is you're possibly dead on! And that's the precise reason why we have to fight even slight tendencies pointing into such a direction and thatswhy such a mailing list is important as a starting point for all of us to get our lazy asses of the couch and actually do something before we don't even know what hit us.
No worries (Score:1)
Nothing here to apologize. You are not likely to get a lot of visitors that get off on dancing coffee cups or a streaming video from President Dubia.
You need basic information on that side and a possibility to get involved and organized. All of that is there and for the rest: So what ?
The directive has already been accepted by the EU Parliament, and from my understanding it will be hard to make wide-ranging amendments to the directive without public outcry.
I didn't know that and consider it even more important to get started now and get as many people (especially the mainstram) involved in issues like
Copy control
Content censorship and
Abuse of our legal system to push an agenda of greed while depriving us of rights which where developed in centuries (maybe beginning with Gutenberg)
This is IMPORTANT (Score:2)
First for the record: I never downloaded an MP3 (too cumbersome, to expensive in Europe), I watch movies preferredly in theatres with a 250m2 screen and an outrageous sound system and each and every piece of software I use is licensed.
This is not necessarily because I share the RIAAs moral values, or microsofts ideas about business ethics, but for media, see above and for software, it could wreck my business and ultimately me.
But, the development we see in the US is frightening. Computers are driven either into totally dumbed down, copy control encrypted, AOL compliant Idiot Boxes (or might be rendered illegal as a copy protection circumvention device eventually), media, especially movies and music, are turned into a pay per view event, provided you have the properly licensed Idiot Box - or be prepared to learn an instrument if you want music (watch out for books soon to come) and the American courts (well, at least in DCMA related cases) appear to have lost every last single ounce of common sense.
What's even more frightening (and somewhat related) is the tendency to drive us more and more into content control. Your Idiot Box is soon to come with pre-installed censor-ware, or your ISP is forced to filter stuff deemed bad for kiddies or for our spiritual well being (and who the hell decided that anyway)!
In the US those changes came in somewhat at a sneeky pace and - with few exceptions - nobody actually realized the impact of those changes until some courts showed us with a vengeance what this actually means.
This is not to be allowed happening in Europe
Although, I have _some_ confidence, that European legislators and courts value the individual somewhat higher then the business entity, this can change mighty rapidly, given enough money for bribi^H^H^H^H^H lobbying purpose and has to be fought before we suddenly find our self on Times Square just after the Disney Corporation was there for "refurbishing".
not neccessarily uphill... (Score:3)
Go for the jugular. (Score:1)
Absolutism is a curse, whatever name it goes by. Rather than raising a petition we should be raising an army - unless you want to see a house of enterprise (thank you Tad Williams for that chilling thought) alongside the other houses of whatever your parliament is called.
People have fought for a lot less.
Aux armes citoyens!
Re:This is IMPORTANT (Score:1)
Yeah, so are cars ? The point is that for average comnsumer dumbed down machine is exactly what he or she needs.
If you want mess around with your boxes you have and you will continue to have that chance.
"or be prepared to learn an instrument if you want music "
No, be prepared to pay if you want to listen to copyrighted music. Nothing new here.
"Your Idiot Box is soon to come with pre-installed censor-ware, or your ISP is forced to filter stuff deemed bad for kiddies or for our spiritual well being (and who the hell decided that anyway)! "
It is an option, you don't have to install censor-ware. I bet that 10 years from now your favourite porn stop will still be there on the Internet, ready as always to server your sexual needs.
Re:Euro DMCA (Score:1)
Of course it would - solution, legislate ALL companies make the same mediocre widgets, that way people choice won't matter anymore.
Typical European thinking
Euro DMCA (Score:1)
What we all need to work on is electing people into power who know WTF they are doing. People in power should know a lot about the internet before they start making laws for it. These people need to educate themselves about the internet and then maybe we can see some laws and regulations that make sense unlike the whole DMCA and other crap laws that any lawyer can rip apart in court.
Lord Arathres
Re:Euro DMCA (Score:1)
Would that not create the problem of people copywriting in the best possible country to gain the most protection because each other member would have to follow that law which the copyright was given?
Lord Arathres
DMCAless (Score:1)
I figure, the DMCA will be rendered (drifting offtopic) unconsitutional in twenty years when liberal judges will be on the Supreme Court, why? Because now, its a conservative court and with Dubya in the White House, and the Court having numerous judges headed towards retirement....
Anyways, back ON topic. This is a noble cause, and it is an assurance that we do have control in the industry, but then again, there's Open Source
Re:not neccessarily uphill... (Score:1)
The fact that the DMCA was passed in the USA is testament to the idea that this is the case. There is practically nothing in it that is in the public interest, especially the bit about copy control on VCRs.
Laws are supposed to be in the best interests of the public, whether directly or indirectly. For example, take speed limits on roads. Although they can be an annoyance, and every driver has broken a speed limit at some point, we all know that they are put in place to protect the safety of motorists and pedestrians. If there was a referendum tomorrow asking whether speed limits should be abolished, 90% of the public would vote no.
With the DMCA it is different. If the public were all educated on what it actually means, 90% of them would want it struck from the law books.
I believe this is why there is never anything on the news about the DMCA or similar "copyright" acts (at least not here in Britain) - because the MegaCorps do not want the general public to know what it actually entails.
This uphill struggle can be turned into a short saunter up a mildly steep gradient if the public were properly informed about laws such as the DMCA, as it could create enough uproar about violating citizen's rights that governments would need to think twice before implementing DMCA-like laws.
Re:This is IMPORTANT (Score:1)
This is already happening, but so slowly we don't notice it. Ostensibly to appear more "user-friendly", computers now come with Windows pre-installed, with no Windows CD, just a "Restore kit". Computers you buy in the high street that claim to contain modems actually contain WinModems. These are relatively trivial things, I agree. But, "idiot boxes" of the style you mention are going to be all that is available in ten, maybe five years. Take a look at this article [theregister.co.uk] on The Register - it sums up what is going on. Computers will be a thing of the past, and instead of owning an all-purpose computer, you will have to licence, not buy, a range of ridiculously overpriced proprietary devices.
To watch a film in your house, at the moment, you can buy a TV from any electronics company you please, a VCR from anyone you please, and rent a tape from your local video shop. You can even fast forward the adverts.
In ten years, you'd need to rent, not buy, a Media-Industry approved TV (which you do not own, but is licenced to you under a restrictive contract) and an approved DVD player (VHS having been declared a circumvention device in, say, 2003). Furthermore, you will be forced to watch the adverts (leaving the room whilst the adverts are playing being in breach of the licence you implicitly agreed to by playing the disc), and to watch it again, you'd need to pay again.
With new technology, things should get better for the public, not worse. This is why, as I mentioned in my earlier post, the general public need to be properly informed NOW as to what these corporations are trying to do. In my view, enough public outcry should banish the DMCA from Europe.