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Euro DMCA Fails 240

Posted by Hemos from the too-bad-so-sad dept.
Kr3m3Puff writes "Looks like the Euro DCMA has failed according to Yahoo! It seems that only two member nations had adopted the local law and therfore the Euro wide law will not be adopted. The BSA is complaining they have no protections." Update: 12/23 17:50 GMT by T : That's DMCA rather than DCMA -- silly acronyms.
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Euro DMCA Fails More

Euro DMCA Fails

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  • When I read the article I expected Britain to be one of the two that implemented similar legislation. I was quite surprised to find that our IT illiterate politicians missed another chance to cock things up.

    Chris
    • From reading the article it did not sound as if the UK had made a final decision on the subject:

      The United Kingdom's Patent Office issued a statement on its Web site saying it was still considering a variety of view points on the matter and would endeavor to implement the directive by March 31, 2003.

      Sounds more like the bill is still with the Patent Office which is figuring out the minutae before sending it to parliament to be voted upon.
    • Errmmm.... has noone cottoned on to the fact that the directive *still* stands? And as such all EU countries are still obligated to pass into local law legislation that implements the Directive. While a directive may contain a deadline for local implementation, missing this deadline does not remove the obligation to implement it.

  • Spellcheck! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by TheSHAD0W ( 258774 )
    Shouldn't that be "DMCA"?
      1. DCMA == Defence Contract Management Agency
      2. DMCA == Digital Millenium Copyright Act
      Spellcheckers don't know much about acronyms, esp. since they're both valid, and they're both Big Brother - related :-)
      • An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word (replacing the letters IGITAL with a "." in the D of D.M.C.A for example). An acronym is when an abbreviation itself works as a word, liked RADAR.
        • It's an acronym. Acronyms don't have to spell words. Your example is an example: before the phrase "RAdio Detection And Rannging" was shortened, there was no such thing as RADAR. Same with SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus), etc. Until they were shortened into acronyms, there was no such word.

          You, sir, don't know what you're talking about.

        • I'm afraid that acronym is another of those words that through relaxed usage has come to mean all of these concoctions, e.g., here. I actually like it better the modern way, as some acronyms are pronounced or said different by different people -- URL -- and acronym to be connotes the abbr. of a common word by squashing letters out of it. OK?

          This source [wordorigins.org] says acronyms are a novel 20th century affliction.

          What amuse me are the words that vary not in sound but by a letter, which sticklers nonetheless insist are entirely different -- farther/further, inquire/enquire, insure/ensure, potato/potatoe (heh-heh -- just kidding -- I wouldn't have let that one go!)

          OK, admittedly I am careful in my writing to follow most of these stupid rules, excepe for splitting infinitives, which I do with abandon if it suits the occasion.

          • What amuse me are the words that vary not in sound but by a letter, which sticklers nonetheless insist are entirely different -- farther/further, inquire/enquire, insure/ensure, potato/potatoe (heh-heh -- just kidding -- I wouldn't have let that one go!)

            Maybe those words sound the same in your accent but they sound different (to varying degrees) in an Australian accent (father vs. ferther) and I'd guess in an English accent as well. Pet peeve: Americans who think "our" and "are" are the same word. These sound completely different in a non-American accent and when you read someone else's post in your head it sounds very wrong.

            • Eh, what do we care what foreigners think? ;-) Americans don't HAVE an accident! Er, accent!

              To be honest, and I'm trying here, I can't fathom how to pronounce "our" and "are" differently. I'll have to bring this one up at dinner. These things make me feel bad as I try to teach my 6 y.o. to spell and feel I must keep apologizing for our language. Verb conjugations doesn't help ("what do you mean 'teared' isn't past tense for 'tear'? well, son, y'see, English is a collection of other languages that it mutilated and mixed and misremembered about until....") Like, why do flammable and inflammable meant the same thing? (Yes, I know the answer, but I will feel silly explaining it to him.)

              The tendency in American English is towards eliminating the "duplicate" word, which is fine by me if we can still speak intelligibly. "Potatoe" refers to an old joke [washingtonpost.com] about a certain U.S. vice president. (The sharp-tongued little boy later appeared at the Democratic Convention.)

              Happy holidays!

    • BLASPHEMY! (Score:4, Funny)

      by unformed ( 225214 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @12:12PM (#4945133)
      Thou shalt not speaketh the word "spellcheck" in Commander Taco's Realm.

      Repent, fellkow mortal, REPENT!

  • Hmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rickthewizkid ( 536429 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @11:48AM (#4944922)
    Now when will the USA version fall?

    Or, when can I move to europe? :)
    -RickTheWizKid

  • Thank $deity for that... (Score:5, Informative)

    by RMH101 ( 636144 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @11:50AM (#4944940)
    I thought this was a foregone conclusion after David Blunkett et al's usual draconian bills.

    For all UK readers, this is probably a good idea to publicise http://www.faxyourmp.org - a very quick, easy and above all *free* way to get a digitally-signed paper fax to your local MP from a webpage.

    Shout loudly or lose yet more digital rights...

  • if the pockey-boys to legislators [in america see lobbyist] thought all the countries with little to no money flowing in from the very source this ridiculous serious of laws aim to protect profits would just adopt these strict, un-adaptable laws that suppress creativity and limit personal rights.. they're either crazy or blinded by their ultra greed.

    oh yeah..

    pm

  • BSA Complains? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23, 2002 @11:52AM (#4944962)
    Why would the Boy Scouts of America [scouting.org] want extra protection in Europe?

    (Posted anonymously for my protection.)

  • Mildly amusing side note (Score:5, Funny)

    by idontgno ( 624372 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @11:53AM (#4944967) Journal
    " "It's a bit disappointing," Francisco Mingorance, European policy director for the Business Software Alliance (BSA) trade group told Reuters on Monday."

    At a quick glance, you could read the BSA mouthpiece's name as "Ignorance".

    No, I don't have anything useful to add to the discussion; I just wanted to mock the name of the Mouth of Sauron.

  • Wrong (Score:5, Informative)

    by KilljoyAZ ( 412438 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @11:54AM (#4944975) Homepage
    Reading the article one finds the hasn't failed, it just won't be in place in time for 2003. There's nothing stopping these countries from adopting the law in the future.

    And for the last time, it is DMCA, not DCMA!

    • Re:Wrong (Score:2, Informative)

      by nusuth ( 520833 )
      No, the article says the deadline has passed so it won't be an EU wide law.
      • From the article:

        Mingorance at the BSA said it may be months before any EU-wide law goes into effect. "I'm hopeful that before the summer it will be adopted, or at least before the end of next year, but then that will be very late."
      • Bullshit many directives are not implemented in national European laws. What happens then?

        Easy: The directive becomes law by itself if applicable and/or -- as software producer -- you can sue any nation that has failed to implement the directive for any damages.

        Basically people who have no clue of the European Union (like CmdrTaco, Kr3m3Puff ...) should reacd up on the legal system we have here.

  • crafty (Score:2, Insightful)

    by k3v0 ( 592611 )
    it's smart of the EU member nations to look to the model that the US has set and the problems surrounding implemetation of these laws

  • The DMCA is pretty ineffective anyway... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Valar ( 167606 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @11:55AM (#4944984)
    Sure, the RIAA and MPAA and their buddies in the government have tried to apply the DMCA to every aspect of life, but if you look at how it is being enforced, versus how it could be enforced it really isn't that bad. Afterall, they could break your door down, tear gas your dog, spray you in the face with pepper spray then push you down the stairs for DMCA violation...or at least that's what they told me.

  • Boo Hoo for the BSA (Score:5, Funny)

    by FreeLinux ( 555387 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @11:58AM (#4945012)
    I feel really sorry for them. How ever will they enforce their policies without this bill? Especially with half of Europe switching to Linux, the BSA rapidly approaches obsolescence.

    We'll miss them, won't we?

  • Rejoice! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by WPIDalamar ( 122110 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @11:59AM (#4945017) Homepage
    You guys sure are lucky over there to have politicians that can actually think without being prompted by big-business. Go EU!
    • And what about what happens when Canada enters into a free-trade-zone agreement with the EU?

      This link points to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (Trade Negotiations) Canada. link [dfait-maeci.gc.ca]

      Will there be "harmonization" between Canada's laws and the EU, so that the BSA, RIAA, MPAA, etc. will look to the great white north in fear and trembling (more than they already do, since we're "stealing" so many jobs in the entertainment industry already)?

    • Re:Rejoice! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by JensChr ( 236725 )
      They are not thinking, they are just slow...
      The infosoc directive is (unfortunately) not stopped, they just did not make it national laws within the agreed deadline.
      Once the EU has agreed upon the directive, the member countries cannot decide not to implement it.

  • There's no point to this article... (Score:5, Informative)

    by doctomoe ( 538769 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @12:01PM (#4945042)
    Whether the countries have or have not implemented the Directive's text into local law does not matter. As soon as a Directive is published, it has an obligatory effect in all of the EU countries, whether it's implemented or not. So in short, in a lawsuit, any of the parties can take advantage of the Directive and the local judge will have to respect it, even if it is in opposition with the local law.

    • I'm sorry, but you are wrong.

      A directive per-se it's a bit more than nothing. The EU works this way: the European Council or the European Parliament dictate a directive and give the EU members a deadline to implement ("transpose") it. Every member must transpose the directive, but there's always a transient period (monthes or even years) until the directive gives shape to a country-specific law. While this transient period, the directive has no effect. The point here is this: a directive is not a law and won't be used by a judge.

      Kuro5hin [kuro5hin.org] carried an interesting article explaining what's the EU and how it works [kuro5hin.org]

      • No, I am right :) It's true that a Directive has no effect given to it by the EU Treaty, but the EU Court has decided since 1970 that a Directive which has not been implemented or has been badly implemented has a direct effect for all EU countries once the deadline has passed.

        SACE (17 december 1970, ruling 33/70, rec. 1213)
        Van Duyn (4 december 1974, ruling 41/74, rec. 1337)

        I have studied EU law for 2 years, I know what I am talking of.

    • It's not strictly true that the law can be applied immediately the directive is passed - that is what the deadline is for. But yes, anyone could now take their government to the ECJ Court of the First Instance and complain about non-compliance.
    • So in effect the wonderful EU system they have now is in all essence the same as the United states... The fed's make a law and the states HAVE to follow them...

      so what do we call the european nations now? The unites States of Europe?

      If any of the countries in that group has any balls, they would reject the EU and recede from the group right now.

      • Well, i guess it's too late to back off now for the countries. As for the reference to the federal system, the EU, though a unique system, will tend more and more to a federal type system in future. Especially as they are currently working on a EU Constitution, which will be the basement to a European Federation.
      • So in effect the wonderful EU system they have now is in all essence the same as the United states... The fed's make a law and the states HAVE to follow them...

        so what do we call the european nations now? The unites States of Europe?

        How about the "European Union"? I coulda' sworn that EU acronym thingy meant something...

        If any of the countries in that group has any balls, they would reject the EU and recede from the group right now.

        First, the word you're looking for is secede. Second, these countries voluntarily joined the EU, not that long ago. They have significantly more say in the actions of the EU as a whole than individual states do in the US. Finally, a question: does Michigan separate from the United States (or threaten to) every time the federal government does something stupid? Getting along with other nations sometimes requires patience and compromise--notions with which leaders of all nations should familiarize themselves.

      • So in effect the wonderful EU system they have now is in all essence the same as the United states... The fed's make a law and the states HAVE to follow them...

        OK, but I cannot resist faming this twit. The member states of the EU have already agreed to this directive. As part of their agreement they agreed to enact it in domestic law within a three year deadline. Now they have failed to do so they can be taken to court for failing to enact in national law something they had passed via directive.

        So nobody has forced them to do anything, whatever you may think of the DMCA and the European directive the people to blame are you - either because you voted for the politicians who enacted the law, you couldn't be bothered to vote or you didn't get politically active and persuade enough people to vote...or maybe you are wrong?

  • Late == canceled? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Soft ( 266615 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @12:06PM (#4945080)
    It seems that only two member nations had adopted the local law and therfore the Euro wide law will not be adopted.

    Don't rejoice too fast; I fail to understand how the article implies that most member countries being late means that the directive will not be implemented...

  • Only two nations... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Fyz ( 581804 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @12:06PM (#4945081)
    ... Unfurtunately, I happen to live in Denmark, one of the two. We have a small, private organization going by the name of Anti Pirate Group, who get issued warrants from local judges, and afterwards basically bust into people's homes, rummaging through their computers and CD collection in search of pirate material.

    There have been cases where they have denied the owner the right to an attorney, on the grounds that "it would take too long", and other similarly unfair treatment of suspected pirates.

    Another case was when they confiscated a computer from a 13-year old attending a LAN party, and then have him, to his great embarrasment, hauled downtown for questioning without attendence of his legal guardian.

    A recent competition of their making was hacked, and the email addresses of the participants were signed up on just about every spamlist in existance.

    Can't say I feel much sympathy...

    • Wow, reading that, I feel violent urges towards those folks. They went to a LAN party??? You show up at a LAN party where I come from and try to confiscate someone's stuff, you've got 50-300 angry, angry people breathing down your neck.
    • We have a small, private organization going by the name of Anti Pirate Group, who get issued warrants from local judges, and afterwards basically bust into people's homes, rummaging through their computers and CD collection in search of pirate material.

      Anyone intending to burst into my home suddenly and without warning, apart from duly sworn-in law enforcement officers bearing a valid search warrant and announcing themselves as such, would be well-advised to have his will up to date. This home is protected by Smith & Wesson, among others.

    • The Swedish Anti Pirat Byrån had a recorded interview on their site which was from a radio show about how piracy hurts the poor poor business owners, why piracy is bad, copyright laws etc etc.

      The twist? They didn't bother to ask the radio station for permission before they put it up there, then tried to make it a case of fair use when the radio station called them on it...

  • But the bad thing is (Score:2, Informative)

    by rolfwind ( 528248 )
    the BSA will keep trying and trying...... that's what particularly bad about this situation.... it will keep on going and going and going - they just lost one round.

    The EU recently welcomed in a bunch of nations from Eastern Europe, around 10, like Poland. Those countries don't make a lot of money on Software Sales yet, nor on giant media type stuff. What's the incentive to pass a law for the politicians whene it doesn't do anything for their nation. They wolud have to see a benefit (personal or national) or its going to be a backburner issue for them.
  • Go Europe, go! I knew you weren't as stupid as the american goverment! :)
    • Sadly, the demise of the EuroDMCA (Directive 2001/29/EC) is not at hand.

      The only thing is that the directive was supposed to be implemented in the law of all EU countries before Dec 22. It has not been stopped, it has only been delayed.

      So, stop cheering and start writing letters to the press and government.

  • What I don't get... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BorgDrone ( 64343 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @12:19PM (#4945196) Homepage
    From the article:

    With hopes dashed of having a strong copyright law in place for the start of 2003, media and software companies complain that they are largely unprotected from digital piracy

    I don't get this, making copies of copyrighted content was already illegal, why would they need extra laws for digital content ? Why would a law that forbids decrypting data protect them any more than they are now ? It's not like the pirates are suddenly going to care about the fact that what they doing is illegal.

    • The answer is simple... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Slur ( 61510 )
      Imagine you own a house. One day you leave the door unlocked, thieves enter and steal your television. If the thieves are caught they will be arrested only once. This is because you are only a citizen, and are not afforded any special privileges.

      Now imagine that your door was locked. Thieves break your lock and enter and steal your television. Under the current laws they would still only be arrested once. This is because there are no special laws applying to the lock on your door, and so the theft is not a special case.

      Now imagine you are a big media conglomerate with lobbyists in Washington. You get the government to pass a special law covering the locks on your doors, so that if a thief actually breaks the lock on your door they can be arrested and charged extra-heavily and go to jail for even longer.

      Isn't that excellent? See, in the first case you didn't have a lock on your door, so it could be argued that you were inviting anyone to take your television. Once you put locks on your door, it tells people you don't want them entering your house and stealing your television. But this is still not enough, because there is nothing in the law that says "by having this lock on my door I'm not kidding, I really don't want you to take my television."

      The DMCA is that new special law that says, "locks on doors are extra-specially-explicitly things meant to keep others out."

      Without the DMCA there would be all kinds of confusion and no one would know what locks are for, or what's legal and what's not.

      Aren't you glad we have people in government to clear these things up for us?
    • Actually it's "unlawful", the difference being you can't got to jail for giving a copy of Operation Flashpoint to your friend so you can play multiplayer at a LAN meet. However, Codemasters can sue you for giving a copy to your friend because if you hadn't given a copy to your friend he might have gone and bought a copy, so they're out the few bucks they make off the $69.95 purchase price.

  • BSA (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mslinux ( 570958 )
    Was Microsoft the founder of the BSA? It seems kinda odd to me that only a few dozen companies are a part of the BSA and that most of those companies, with the exception of Apple and IBM, have close ties to MS.

    Does anyone know who exactly is behind the BSA?

    Thanks!
    • It seems kinda odd to me that only a few dozen companies are a part of the BSA

      That's easy enough. What software is most frequently pirated? Windows. Office. Visual Studio. Photoshop. Illustrator. AutoCAD. ColdFusion. The big apps that cost lots of money, the companies are all members of the BSA. Then things like NAV and McAfee Antivirus, Quicken, stuff people hand to friends without a second thought.

      What I find interesting is that you don't find PC game makers on the list of members. I wonder why?

  • that they have no protection. The fact of the matter is their *right* to protection is defined by *law.* In fact, the very right to have anything to protect at *all* is so defined.

    Without such definitions they have * no rights.*

    IP is a purely manmade construct. Different nations and cultures have different ideas on the extent to which they will assert and defend such "rights."

    If you wish to do business internationally, get used to it.

    You might well even have to get used to the idea that certain cultures and legal systems do not accept the so called "right" to IP.

    It's incredibly arrogant to take your business model formed to comply with and take advantage of one nation's set of laws and demand that other nations mold their laws to comply with your business model.

    If you find this arrangement unacceptable why not get into a business where you *make stuff?* It works for others.

    KFG
  • ...to maintain their monopoly. What did you expect them to say, "OK, we give up, you can copy anything you want and we don't care?" Any business man will tell you they are only in business to make money. Any business man that tells you different is probably selling something.

  • No reason to celebrate... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @12:35PM (#4945332) Homepage
    The laws are late, but that doesn't mean that the remaining EU countries won't adopt them. Particularly with all the controversy around them, and the large consequences, things take longer than the very optimistic deadline. In particular, some of the things it implements is:

    * Your right is now tied to media. It's no longer legal to make mp3s of your cds, for one. Each country can make exceptions, but that's the directive.

    * Illegal to import media from other zones (for companies). Blatant undermining of free trade and competition in my opinion. Also illegal to sell zonefree players or any other kind of "circumvention device".

    It's the backdoor way of extortion. You can purchase something without a licence, but you can not use it unless you have a licenced player, and by extension, those licence terms apply to YOU.

    Let me put this in a way USians can understand:

    You buy a car in the US. It runs fine on the petrol around you, so no probs. Then you want to take it to europe, but you can't. Not for any technical reason, but because it can only use licenced gas, and that gas is only licenced to the US. Note that you never signed a licence agreeing to the fact that the car is only good in the US, but you've been had.

    It's also illegal to make your car work with any other gas. And if you ask the car manufacturer, he'll suggest that you either sell your US car and accessories and buy a Euro car (and likewise sell your Euro car and buy the US one back when you get home), or if you like it so much, buy one of each, even if they in function are completely identical.

    Screw them. If they want to make it region-crippled, they're asking for it. I don't mind if they copyprotect it with CSS2 or whatever. But if I'm banned from buying DVDs because I'm in the wrong zone, then they are just pissing me off. Somehow businesses should think a little about the customers they *do* have, and not only about the pirates (arr!) they *don't* have as customers, and probably won't have in the future anyway.

    Kjella
    • i agree with your hypothetical example all the way up to the part where they say you should sell your us version. as far as i can see, they want to try to stop people from selling old cd's, dvd's and other such things.

      except for the insane insurance here in ireland, i nearly did bring my car over when i emigrated. and thank god i did it before i got into dvd's. i would have been majorly pissed if my entire collection would need to be repurchased (even if i didn't lose money; just the hassle of buying it all again). obviously i have a region free player so it wouldn't really have been an issue, but how much longer will region free players exist?
    • I'm having trouble relating to your analogy. Not that many people move from North America to Europe or vice versa during their lifetimes, and of those that do I'd imagine only a tiny minority actually bring along their autos.

      Also, each country has its own rules about what makes a motor vehicle road-worthy, so even without artificial region locking it's possible that a car that is legal to drive in European countries would not be legal in the US, or vice versa. You don't have to sign a license agreeing that the car is only guaranteed to be street legal in the country you're in -- it's implicit in the law.

      (BTWIANAL)
      • I think the analogy is an extremely good one. Assume that the car is legal to drive on both sides of the pond. This is not unreasonable, since the manufacturer would probably not close out his ability to sell in these other markets unless it really wasn't worth the cost. So what we have here is the exact same car being driven on both continents, and yet it is not immediately possible (and therefore, under the DMCA, illegal) to take a vehicle from one to the other and drive it around.

        Remember also that 'road-driving license agreements' only apply when you are driving on a public road. The DMV can't do squat if all you do is tool around on your own property. But the inability to fill the tank from the local gas station negates even that.

    • I don't mind if they copyprotect it with CSS2 or whatever. But if I'm banned from buying DVDs because I'm in the wrong zone, then they are just pissing me off.

      CSS is encryption, not copy protection. Encyryption doesn't stop anything from being copied. The entire point of CSS is for region encoding, forcing you to watch commercials, and making sure the DVD will only work on approved players.

  • New Measure... (Score:4, Funny)

    by rnturn ( 11092 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @12:43PM (#4945387)
    ``The BSA is complaining they have no protections.''

    Could this be a new measure of how well something is aligned with the public's best interests? If the BSA doesn't like it, it's gotta be good?

    Works for me!

  • The Eurocrats in Brussels never give up. If at first you don't succeed, scare, scare, scare.

    I mean, look at Ireland and the Nice Treaty. Rejected first time round, the Government then sponsored a scare campaign in its favor and had a revote. You may bet your bottom dollar that now they've approved the Nice Treaty, the ignorant masses will never be asked another opinion.

    This law will eventually be the law of Europe.
  • The Europeans are rejecting the United States' Defense Contract Management Agency [dcma.mil]!

    Errrr....wait a sec.
  • I heard that they were having some problems too... ;-)

  • High price... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Vrallis ( 33290 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @01:15PM (#4945645) Homepage
    European lawmakers must have an insanely high price if MPAA/RIAA haven't paid them off already. Ours were bought and sold for pennies.

    Today's special, three Senators for only $1.00! Purchase 10 packs and you are entitled to your choice of 10% off any Supreme Court Justice of your choice or the Vice Pacemaker...erm...President!

  • PLEASE go read the Directive. It's short, as these things go, certainly much snappier than US legislation is - though the URL I have is long:

    http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi !celexapi!prod!CELEXnumdoc&lg=EN&numdoc=32001L0029 &model=guichett [eu.int]

    Among other differences from the DMCA, it establishes a *right* to exercise the equivalent of "fair-use". My reading of the draft UK regulations implementing this Directive suggests, for example, that if I want to make a Braille transcript of Disney's next opus and it's encrypted, I can apply to the Home Secretary (=~ Minister for the Interior) for appropriate cracking tools to get the job done.

    And my reading of the Directive itself is that once an encrypted work enters the public domain, it must open itself up. Cue "foom" sound of .PDFs blatting out plain text automatically 70 years after my death and mailing the Gutenberg Project to say 'hi'...

    And, as others have pointed out, the fact that EU member states are late implementing the Directive doesn't mean it falls. It's not a US Constitutional Amendment, guys. Other legal systems are available, out here.

    F'rexample, only five or six of 15 EU member states have implemented another Directive that says freelances can claim interest (at 7% over base) on invoices paid late by our clients. But even Greece will get round to it eventually - even if it takes a Greek suing her government in den Haag to make it do so.

    • Can you please point out the part where it establishes a 'right' to exercise the equivalent of 'fair-use'?
    • At least the DMCA stopped at circumventing a 'technological measure' that controls access to a work. The EU directive defines a 'technological measure' as anything that stops you from unauthorized acts. Yes, that's unauthorized acts! That goes quite beyond 'mere' access to a work.

  • EUCD is the european drective that is the equivalent of DMCA in the European Union.

    The Anti-EUCD fight is not finished in France as the law project has been proposed on December 3rd. It will be voted in february.

    The FSF Europe/France [fsfeurope.org] is fighting it. Their aim is to propose arguments to deputees to reject the law. Yes, it is Free Software lobbying.

    The main problem is to inform the mainstream of the danger of this law: the approach is that the law kills the "private copy" autorisation.

    For more information (and more reliable) see http://eucd.info/ [eucd.info].

  • DCMA (Score:2)

    by z84976 ( 64186 )
    Dastardly Country Music Awards!


    They simply MUST be stopped before it's too late!

  • That's DMCA rather than DCMA -- silly acronyms.
    Neither DMCA, nor DCMA are acronyms. An acronym has to be a pronounceable "word" (such as RADAR or SCUBA). DMCA is nothing more than an abbreviation (like FBI or MTV).
    • WFT? MTV and FBI are acronyms!
    • I think an abbreviation is more like this:

      "abbrev."

      An acronym, on the other hand is

      A Concise Reduction Obliquely Naming Your Meaning
      A Cross Reference Of Notes Yielding Messages
      Alphabetical Character Rendition Of a Name Yielding a Meaning
      Alphabetically Coded Reminder of Names You Misremember
      A Contrived Reduction Of Nomenclature Yielding Mnemonics ....
      • I think an abbreviation is more like this:

        "abbrev."
        While that is an abbreviation, it's not the only example.

        Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines an abbreviation as "a shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole." FBI and MTV both fall under that definition.

        Merriam-Webster's defines an acronym as "a word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term." RADAR and SCUBA fit the definition (RADAR also fits the definition of a palindrome, but that's another topic ;). FBI and MTV do not.
  • Does anyone know if this will help the DCSS case with Jon Johansen?

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @02:22PM (#4946138)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The BSA, a global body that counts among its members Apple Computer, Microsoft Corp, and Intel Corp, estimates the European software industry loses three billion euros ($3.09 billion) annually due to unauthorized duplication of its products.

    This type of crap is getting really annoying. It's all BS, and I wish the major outlets would stop reporting it. Nothing is being lost! What's really happening is this: potential revenues are being unrealized. They're even projected revenues (note the word "estimates"?), which means the numbers are BS anyway. The truth doesn't sound nearly as sexy, does it? Much more sensational to say 'lost', 'stolen', and 'pirates are everywhere'. Put them all together for more impact (tell me if this sounds familiar):

    "We're losing gazillions of dollars every year because we're surrounded on all sides by terrorist, anti-capitalist, stealing pirates who are trying to destroy our happy, profitable businesses."
    I'm fed up. As a result, I'm going to take a brief leave of my senses, and send out a hearty FUCK YOU to Microsoft, the various ??AAs, all of their lobbyists and spin-doctors, and yes, Reuters.

    Here's more BS from the article:
    The industries argue that the lack of a coherent approach to protecting intellectual property in the digital environment has led to the rise of a black market in pirated material.

    This is not an argument. Using my trusty BS-argument buster, I see that this kind of statement is actually the fallacy of non causa pro causa [virtualschool.edu]. But what is the cause they don't mention? To understand where black markets come from, you have to use economics. Black markets only develop where they are profitable, i.e. where the marginal price is higher than the marginal cost. This never occurs in a free market, but does happen when the market is regulated (take drugs, for instance) or when there are not enough players, which is clearly not the case here. In the case of drugs, active regulation drives up the marginal price artifically (it sucks to go to jail, and part of the price of your dime bag compensates your dealer for the risk they take). In the case under consideration, the marginal cost is being driven up by bad IP laws (which Microsoft and the content industry were so excited about, I might add).

    This is the elusive flaw with their argument, and just goes to show that they created their own hell. Now they're complaining about having to live in it. Morons.

  • French DMCA on the way (Score:4, Informative)

    by hysterion ( 231229 ) on Monday December 23, 2002 @04:24PM (#4947134) Homepage
    As others have written, the headline is vastly overoptimistic. If the editors had read the following, they'd know that France, for instance, seems in the process of adopting a DMCA-like bill:
    • 2002-12-04 15:16:13 France to introduce own DMCA (articles,news) (rejected)

    Today's Libé [liberation.fr] previews a new bill [liberation.fr] introduced by the French government to, in one stroke and all too familiar terms, not only legalize anticopy media , but also prohibit everyone from diffusing, advertising and even making known any means of circumvention. (Google translation. [google.com]) Meanwhile, no plans to end a 56 tax on blank CDs, which brought the industry 95.3 million in 2001. Sad news from a country which, in more enlightened times, pioneered copyright reduction (to 50 years [adminet.com]) and thus enabled such wonderful reissue programs as Chronological [barnesandnoble.com] Classics [amazon.com].

  • ...just get out of the software business? Seriously, they must really be doing something wrong if laws that have worked for years for publishers of other types of works have managed to be profitable I can't imagine why they can't. Books have been copyable for over 50 years, and the "source" is even included with the product, yet they still manage to make money.

    Speaking of books, anyone remember when software used to come with paper manuals? Now that was value!
  • The status of the European Copyright Directive (EUCD) is updated in this wiki. [wiki.ael.be]

    I should also point out, that the EUCD is late, not overturned. The countries are still obliged to implement it.

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