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DMCA, Auf Deutsch 233

Posted by timothy from the urheberrechtsgesetz dept.
Kavau writes "The lower house of the German parliament just passed an amendment to the copyright law (sorry, article in German only). The highly controversial law will severely limit consumers' rights to make private copies of copyrighted media, and imposes special taxes on virtually any device that can potentially be used for copyright circumvention (among these devices are printers, CD burners, scanners and cell phones). Also, circumvention of copyright protection mechanisms will become illegal, as it already is in the United States." There's a short blurb (in English) at the Register Update: 04/13 19:20 GMT by T : [Sorry, actually it's The Inquirer]; note that this has passed the lower house of the German parliament, but has not yet been voted on by the upper.

Kavau continues: "The law does not directly prohibit the fabrication of private copies, but it offers the copyright holder the right to do just that. And we probably can expect the majority of copyright holders to make use of this right. The law simply takes away what US citizens would call the consumer's right to fair use. An exception is made for schools and research institutes, which may provide excerpts of copyrighted media to a group students or researchers.

One of the most important maxims of European law is "in dubio pro reo" (if in doubt, rule in favor of the defendant). While this principle applies to the judicature, and we are talking about the legislature here, the new law nevertheless seems to have perverted this principle: it treats every computer owner as a potential copyright pirate. Thank you, government, for the trust you are showing in your citizens! What's next? Special taxes on pen and paper? Note also that we are likely going to see similar laws in other European countries soon. The law follows guidelines imposed by the European Union in 2001."
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DMCA, Auf Deutsch More

DMCA, Auf Deutsch

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  • Great (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rf0 ( 159958 ) <rghf@fsck.me.uk> on Sunday April 13, 2003 @01:48PM (#5722343) Homepage
    Cool another case of the wrold gone mad. So once again I can't copy something I bought for my own private use. What about making a backup of a CD? So basically this is covering everything that can make copies of sounds and then play them back. Prehaps its time we outlawed parrots :)

    Rus

    • Re:Great (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Blue Stone ( 582566 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @02:04PM (#5722434) Homepage Journal
      "Prehaps its time we outlawed parrots :)"

      Perhaps it's time we outlawed corporations funding and fixing laws for their own benefit. :)

      • Re:Great (Score:3, Insightful)

        by whereiswaldo ( 459052 )
        Perhaps it's time we outlawed corporations funding and fixing laws for their own benefit. :)

        No kidding. For a moment I almost felt sorry for Microsoft just now... they're only working how the government works.. openly corrupt, but "what can they do about it" attitude.

        Seriously, if you're like me and not really into (or don't have time to) protesting on the street, stop buying anything you can't use in a way that is acceptible to you.

        Money talks - that has been made clear time after time by corporations
        • The problem is these industries have a built-in mechanism to combat this. It's called "piracy". Don't think you're making enough sales? Blame it on file-sharers!
        • The only other way to get a voice in government that can compete with corporate lobbyists is to join a lobbying group which supports your views.

          There aren't many on our side, but the EFF is definitely one worthy of $25 of my income every month. They have a recurring payment system so you can "set it and forget it" (TM) (R) (C) K

          It is ridiculous that the non-voting entities are those whom recieve the most favors from our elected officials.

    • Re:Great (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      obviously, since only pirates need parrots. We need to outlaw wooden legs and eye patches as well.
    • It's only a matter of time before a Strausburg E-PM (European Parliament Member) passes something similar. The RIAA includes German music companies as well thus they're only seeking to protect themselves on their home turf before moving on to other areas. I'd be surprised if lesiglation is not already pending or passed in the Japanese Diet or Indian Parliament as well as all the major European countries.

      That reminds me: Maybe the Iraqi foreign minister will take up his next job as the RIAA spokes person

    • World Intellectual Property Organization Treaty (Score:4, Informative)

      by hillct ( 230132 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @05:15PM (#5723316) Homepage Journal
      This shouldn't be a suprise to anyone. This is just the next step required of each signatory to the 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization Treaty. First the DMCA, in the US, then legislation in Mexico and now Germany. It's important also to note that the DMCA is only the first step with regard to amended copyright legislation in the U.S. It only partially brings the United States into complience with the 1996 treaty. The german legislation comes closer to bringing that country into compliance, than the U.S. legislation. Expect far more stringent laws to be passed in the U.S., updating the DMCA, and also additional legislation in Germany (after passage of the bill currently before their legislature) to bring that country completely into compliance with the treaty as well.

      --CTH

  • We Told You Guys.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by k-0s ( 237787 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @01:48PM (#5722344) Homepage
    All the Americans here told the rest of the world to watch out, other DMCA-like bills would try to be passed in other countries. Germany it still isn't too late. Protest in the streets, call representatives, anything. Don't let it pass or you're going to end up in a similar mess as us.
    • "Protest in the streets, call representatives, anything. "

      Just don't block traffic. Those of you who were trapped at work for several hours because of anti-war protests know what I'm talking about.
      • What an inconvenience.

  • The Upper House is effectively a formality (Score:5, Informative)

    by Vlad_the_Inhaler ( 32958 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @01:50PM (#5722358)
    The upper house (Bundesrat) in Germany is only 'allowed' to intervene under certain circumstances. Since only the FDP - who have around 7% of the vote - are against this, consider the Bundesrat to be a formality.

    What this law represents is making a decision already passed at EU level a law valid in Germany, they did not have a lot of room to maneuvre.
    • Where's the "+1 Interesting, yet Highly Unfortunate" modifier? :(

    • Re:The Upper House is effectively a formality (Score:4, Informative)

      by Vlad_the_Inhaler ( 32958 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @02:14PM (#5722476)
      Additional information:
      The CDU are in Opposition in Germany, but have the majority in the Upper house. They have indicated that they will see how this law turns out and maybe introduce a packet of updates to it.

      I am not sure I trust them to do a good job, and their hands are pretty much tied by the EU directive 2001/29/EG anyway. This original EU directive was passed in June 2001 and should have been adopted as national law by the end of last year.

      This means that other EU countries must have passed similar laws over the past few months, can anyone who knows comment on this?

      • Re:The Upper House is effectively a formality (Score:5, Informative)

        by villoks ( 27306 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @02:36PM (#5722582) Homepage Journal
        >This means that other EU countries must have passed >similar laws over the past few months, can anyone >who knows comment on this?

        You are right. So far Greece, Italy and Denmark has adapted their national copyright laws and others will follow. More info about the situation can be found from here: http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/EUCD-Status [wiki.ael.be]

        We managed to postpone the implementation in Finland (the law was actually sent back from Parliament, party because it was very badly written, partly because it was over-reaching) but it will come back sooner or later. As long as the directive exists as today, there's not so much what can be done.

        Ville

        PS. We (EDRI) are starting a campaign to minimize the damage in Central and Eastern Europe. If you are from the region and want to actually do something, please contact me!

    • It's sad to note that the FDP (our "liberal" patry) didn't vote for this bill, because it was not far reaching enough. According to them it limits the rights of copyright owners over their product too much.
      • When the CDU get into power again, it will be in coalition with the FDP.

        I said I don't trust the CDU.

        As to the FDP's priorities, a couple of years back I had a small company in the S of Germany. I got targeted mail from the FDP pointing out that they were representing me - the small businessman.
        I have never seen the need for Doctors, Dentists and Lawyers to have their own party.
    • Since only the FDP - who have around 7% of the vote - are against this, consider the Bundesrat to be a formality

      And the FDP are against it because they think the law is not hard enough on users.

      As a Swiss, I'm happy that we're not in the EU, so we don't have to comply with the EU directive. But our government has the nasty habit of "autonomously" implementing virtually every piece of EU legislation... often well in advance of most EU Member states. I'm afraid.
  • that the DeCSS code would be illegal in germany? damn now dose that just sux.
    DVD Johnson you roX!
  • Soon a photographic memory and voicebox will be eligible to make the list. That's awfully restrictive - can someone clarify this? And what kind of taxes are we talking? 10% of cost? 20%? Just curious.
    • They are talking about 20Euros for a printer (about 10% for a low end one) and 38 for a 'multifunction device' (printer/scanner/copier). The CD thing I can sort of understand but I really can't understand this.


      This is not a lot but very, very, stupid. Unless the rest of the EU does the same, it is easy to pop over a border for a purchase.

      • Wasn't it that printer and copier prices included some amount for the VG Wort [vgwort.de] anyway? So that you now have to pay two times for the possibility to perhaps print texts written by professional writers?
        • I had not heard that printers/copiers were attracting special taxes. If they were, then professional users would probably be able to escape them and I have seen no such arrangements other than the usual Mwst recovery.

          To an extent, I can understand taxes on writeable CDs/DVDs but it is too expensive and takes too long to copy more than a part of a document for copying of entire books to be widespread. The only exception would be those reports and standards which may have a massive cost per page.

          The other

    • We are looking at fixed sums. The two figures I saw were 20 for an Inkjet printer and 38 for one of those multi-function fax/printer/scanners. 1 is about $1.07 at the moment.

      CD Burners have had something like this for a while, as have Cassette players (I think) not sure what the amount is though.

      There is a great tendency here for the Government (all parties) to treat the consumer as something to be 'Milked', they will happily create a new tax to pay off some special-interest group such as the GEMA (Ge

  • The guy with his "soviet russia" sig may be joking (Score:3, Insightful)

    by aepervius ( 535155 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @01:55PM (#5722390)
    ... but it starts to smell likes you have to go to beyond the ex iron curtain to get some liberty on your privat stuff (like back up every single of your soft *which* I do after loosing 2 cd to accident) or loosing public domain or everything. We really seems to go into the Corporantism at outrance where we human cease to have rights except obying what the corporation comes up with sicne they hold or nearly hold the hands of the law.


    And before you starts speaking of alternative, let me snort a big time and ask you if those alternative are for the big public or only a few hacker resistant.

  • Babels rough translation... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Chicane-UK ( 455253 ) <chicane-uk@ntlwor l d . c om> on Sunday April 13, 2003 @01:56PM (#5722394) Homepage
    I dont know if these are dynamically created URL's, but here is a link to the Babelfish's translation - a bit ropey, but for those who dont read German at all, its a start :)

    link [altavista.com]

  • Cell phones (Score:2, Insightful)

    by fosk ( 527437 )
    How are people supposed to circumvent copyright laws using cell phones?
    Wait.. you probably shouldn't tell me, it might be illegal. :)
    • Built in recorders, some phones have mp3 playback capabilities, etc etc... People here have been in trouble for custom ring tones that were snippits of copyrighted songs.
  • Das tut mir leid... Looks like our American diseases are contagious.
    • Looks like. And I always thought "poor Americans, there goes their freedom". Gotta change my European attitude.
      So the only place where we are safe for now on is in some 3rd world countries where they just have bigger problems than "piracy", maybe even real pirates with eyecaps and everything. Who knows *g*.
      But why am I joking? It's just sad. We need a scheme in which musicians/actors/writers can make money without selling CDs/DVDs,.../books. Or a change in mind in which "star"/manager != millionaire

      But I

  • Dead Kenedys eat your heart out. (Score:3, Funny)

    by twitter ( 104583 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @01:58PM (#5722404) Homepage Journal
    Jerry Brown might have wanted California Uber Ales, but it looks like Hollywood over all.

  • Jeden Tag verlieren wir immer mehr unserer Rechte, die Profite der großen Firmen zu schützen.

    Michael. [michael-forman.com]
    • Die Frage ist doch eher ob das Kopieren einer CD ein Recht oder Privileg ist?

      Die Industrie scheint zu denken das es ein Privileg ist, das Individum (sprich Kunde) das es sein Recht ist.

      Ich denke beide liegen Falsch, die Entscheidung sollte beim Kuenstler liegen. Immerhin ist es deren "Baby".

      • Re:Schade (Score:5, Insightful)

        by __past__ ( 542467 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @04:12PM (#5723038)
        Die Frage ist doch eher, ob die Möglichkeit des Kopierens ein finanzieller Verlust für die Content-Produzenten ist. Ich muss ja z.B. auch Mehrabgaben für Drucker bezahlen, wenn ich nur meine eigenen Urlaubsfotos drucke, genau wie ich jetzt schon GEZ-Gebühren bezahlen muss, weil ich einen Fernseher habe, auch wenn ich keine Antenne habe und nur Videos gucke.
        • IMO ist das ganze einfach eine Vortsetzung des Gedankens der Industrie.

          In den meisten Faellen zahlen Kuenstler ja auch fuer die Produktion ihrer Alben. D.h. wenn deine neue Band ein Album aufnimmt mag die Plattenfirma das zwar zunaechst Finanzieren, die holen sich das Geld aber wieder.

          Anstatt jetzt halt zu Warten bis Du mit deinen Urlaubsfotos Geld verdienen moechtests geht man gleich schonmal davon aus und nimmt dich in die Finanzielle Verantwortung fuer dein Potentizial.

          Schoene neue Welt.
        • Hm, das ist dann wohl der erste deutsche Thread (Entschuldigung, 'Faden') auf Slashdot? :-)

  • They are irrelavent anyhow.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by argoff ( 142580 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @02:08PM (#5722456)

    IMHO, the real battle is going on in the US. If we win here, than the other countries will fall like dominos - and ease copy restrictions across the board, if we loose here then there is no way in hell any other country is going to have the strength to hold out.

    Therefore, if you are from outside the USA - I recommend paying attention to what goes on here 1st. Copyrights are very quickly becoming unenforceable without draconian measures, with trillions at stake, for each side, I wouldn't be supprised if all hell's about to break loose.
    • "...if we loose here then there is no way in hell any other country is going to have the strength to hold out."
      Don't you mean loosen? "Loose" is an adjective.

    • Re:They are irrelavent anyhow.... (Score:4, Informative)

      by villoks ( 27306 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @02:46PM (#5722637) Homepage Journal
      Well..

      US is definately important and your trade-policy is currently aimed to secure markets to Disney and Microsoft, what ever it takes. In this sense it's very important what happens in the "new continent".

      Never the less, EU is still independent and currently there are some indicators that the wind is really changing here to more reasonable direction. For example European Parliament (which nowadays has even some political power) has taken so far a VERY interesting stance on software patents:

      ITRE [eu.int]

      CULT [eu.int]

      Anyway most of this laws are based on international treaties and unless the lobbying will start in WIPO and WTO, the fight is futile..

      Ville

      PS. We (European Digital Rights) are starting a campaign to minimize the damage coming from EUCD in Central and Eastern Europe. If you are from the region and want to actually do something, please contact me!


      • Well, good luck, and on behalf of all American's who are sick and tired of Microsoft and Disney shoving copyrights down everyones throat, I apologize. We don't like it here either.

        I'm not from Europe, but Perhaps if we make the battle tough enough here it will do more to keep the dogs off your back over there. Perhaps that's what's already happening. LOL!

      • You raise a very curious point.

        I'm from (South) Asia, and quite honestly, have always marvelled at European multi-lateralism; for instance, it always struck me curious that Brussels, Paris, and Amsterdam, cities in different countries, are easily accessible by train from any German smalltown. Something that's definitely not possible in South Asia. The point really, is that you seem to sound as if you're given to the idea that lobbying against draconian IPR laws has to be done at an international -pan-Europ


        • As a historian once told me - history is a story of visionaries and reactionaries. The visionaries create the new future, and the reactionaries try to block those changes and keep the status quo. Here one might say, the USA is the visionary and old-Europe is the reactionary. The US is constantly changing, and growing, where Europe is trying to maintain the world super power status they once had. Another example, visionary currency traders figured out how to call a nations "bluff" (eg when when HK artif
          • As a historian once told me - history is a story of visionaries and reactionaries. The visionaries create the new future, and the reactionaries try to block those changes and keep the status quo. Here one might say, the USA is the visionary and old-Europe is the reactionary.

            I disagree.

            The US is constantly changing, and growing, where Europe is trying to maintain the world super power status they once had.

            The US is trying to increase the reach of its world hegemony. The EU is effectively becoming (ov

    • Copyrights are very quickly becoming unenforceable ...

      Well, if copyrights eventually do become effectively unenforcable (which they will be without a totalitarian world government), how would artists eat, and how would media execs be able to pay for their 4th vacation house? Would civilization as we know it collapse (heh), or would a new balance emerge on its own? Yeah, the latter.

      It seems to me that two things would happen: 1) The original and valuable act of creation can't be copied (there's no A.I. V

  • This new law has a good paragraph:
    It allows scientific articals ect to be distributed in intranets without need for royality fees if it is for tutoring purposes.
    Of couese the puplishers are fuming, but they are even worse than the music industry.
    (in germany,for example), a great part of the research at university is funded by the gouvernment. The results are given to puplishers for free. Now the puplishers make a little bit of peer-review (of course everyone his happy if he is allowed to review an article,
  • Tax PRINTERS? I really like the idea of printing my pirated albums off in binary onto paper.
    Only when I see a home printer capable of printing money, including security measures, will I see a need to restrict printers.
    • We need to restict these terrorists devices before its too late!

      If we don't someone could scan a cd, print it out and glue it on a regular disc and play it!

      Somebody please think about our children?

  • time to tax artists, typists and other humans too (Score:4, Insightful)

    by erroneus ( 253617 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @02:14PM (#5722478) Homepage
    With a pencil, I have been able to render some pretty good copies of art work in the past. With a typewriter, I can neatly copy an tire book... or more depending on how much time I can devote to it. For that matter, I can use the same pencil I used to duplicate the copyrighted artwork found on "whatever" commercial product out there.

    Okay, yeah, I'm preaching to the choir. I don't believe these IP owners are losing money... and I don't believe they will increase their flow by screwing people via the government using taxes.

    And where that is concerned, I can't understand how it can be both ways!!

    Either (A) criminalize the act of copying or (B) legalize and tax the act of copying. You can't do both! (Okay, they can do both, but it's kind wrong though.)

    I can't understand how we can be taxed for "potentential criminal activity."

  • Interesting developments... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 13, 2003 @02:22PM (#5722508)
    Under ancient (and not-so-ancient) Arabic law, you steal, and you get your hand chopped off.

    Under new American/EU policy, you get your hand chopped off so that you can't steal.

    And *who* has the brutal regime here?

    • I know, I know, don't feed the troll bla bla bla, but heck, you have a +5 rating, so might as well reply.

      Point #1: I've made this point elsewhere on this site, but stuff about pan-Arabic (Islamic) brotherhood - forget about it. Never existed, never will.

      Point #2: The so-called Arabic law you speak of actually talks about chopping your hands off. I mean, physically. In public view. The state-sponsored butcher asks you to stretch your hand, raises his sword, and splat, wipes your blood off his stained cloth

  • Here in the NL we already have something on that, being charges 0,14 extra per CD-RW last time I bought a batch. Feels lovely to get fined for a crime I did not commit. Yet. Hell, I already paid my fine, so now I can copy copyrighted crap without worries, based on the fact you can get charged for the same offense twice. Too bad that won't work in court when I'm facing a small army of lawyers...

    Also, if there are any other dutch people around here, (hard to imagine there aren't) does any of you have any i

  • Do not fight the symptoms (these bad laws). Cure the disease. Corporations are more and more taking control of the legislatures all over the world. In some places, they are taking over the judicial system [guerrillanews.com] as well.

    You can also watch as corporation-like entities such as Church of Scientology take over all three branches of government (in the United States). They have police, judges, and legislators in their pockets.

  • DMCA disease sweeps Europe (Score:5, Informative)

    by D4C5CE ( 578304 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @02:47PM (#5722643)
    For more information on why this is important news for people in other countries as well, just see the links below (some of them still in German, though):

    The German parliament [bundestag.de] which has just adopted [heise.de] DMCA-style provisions [bmj.bund.de] to outlaw the circumvention of technical protection measures that control and curtail the fair use [privatkopie.net] of intellectual property (and only needs the other House's assent for part of the new legislation) makes Germany the third country, following Denmark and Greece [theregister.co.uk], to implement the highly controversial [eucd.org] "monstrosity" [www.ivir.nl] known as the European Union Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC [eu.int].

    This move, allegedly a "propaganda victory" dubbed "lex Bertelsmann" (after the giant media conglomerate [bertelsmann.com] expected to line their corporate pockets under the new laws) in furious [heise.de] disapproval [theinquirer.net] by tech-savvy parts of the news media, makes Germany one of the early adopters [biomedcentral.com] setting an unfortunate precedent for further European countries like the UK [patent.gov.uk] and France [eucd.info] whose citizens, and notably developers like Linux kernel guru Alan Cox [slashdot.org], will probably not be spared from similar legislation for much longer either.

    Although open-source researchers [ifross.de], cyber-rights activists [slashdot.org] and even the ruling Social Democrats' very own IT experts [fitug.de] as well as hardware manufacturers [heise.de] underlined the severe dangers and inconsistencies [heise.de] of this new and doubtful philosophy [openp2p.com] extending copyright law to reduce many of the general public's rights to insignificance, in a debate focusing only on academic exemptions [heise.de] from the publishers' power grab, the opposition even tried to tighten [heise.de] the government's bill [bmj.bund.de], ignoring widespread experiences of Chilling Effects [chillingeffects.org] such as censorship and assaults on the Freedom to Tinker [freedom-to-tinker.com] during the past four years [eff.org] under the EUCD [eu.int]'s U.S. counterpart of draconian "bad law and bad policy [nytimes.com]", the flawed [eff.org] Digital Millennium Copyright Act [loc.gov], another overreaching [berkeley.edu] implementation of the

  • Circumvention is not allowed, but you don't get (Score:3, Informative)

    by mocm ( 141920 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @02:50PM (#5722653)
    punished.
    The draft text of the law states that circumvention for private use is not allowed, but cannot be punished. It also states that you have the right to make a private copy. It doesn't say you have the right to a private copy.
    Private use means that you can give a copy to people you have immediate private contact, i.e. friends and family.
  • http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl? tt=url&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Fnetzwelt% 2Fpolitik%2F0%2C1518%2C244345%2C00.html&lp=de_ en

    The very last part de_en can be substituted with your language but I don't have a list handy.

    Sometimes the translations are very funny.

  • Not too worried any more... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Eric_Cartman_South_P ( 594330 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @03:01PM (#5722699)
    Seriously... every time a law like the one mentioned in the article gets passed, I used to freak out and just feel down, despressed, and sad for like five or ten minutes. It's the only thing that makes reading Slashdot unpleasant. Or... it was.

    Then I think about how, here in the USA(TM), it is illegal to drink under the age of 21, illegal to have sex under the age of 17 (most states) and illegal to smoke pot. Yet these events happen every day, all the time, easily and freely. At least for us geeks that manage to get out of the house a few days a week! :)

    So I ask myself, "Self! What is harder to stop the distribution of: a physical, smelly, heavy shippment of pot, or an mp3?" And then I realize that NOTHING can stop me from enjoying my music where and when I want. If the USA(TM) government can't stop the Crack and the Pot, how can they stop mp3's, an invisible, intangible, almost instantly transferable commodity?

    They can't.

  • And yet... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Windcatcher ( 566458 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @05:28PM (#5723379)
    ...we still can't wait to see X-Men XVII, The Matrix Reloaded Again and Again, Armageddon III, Terminator XV, et. al.

    We still put money in their pockets, the same money they use to buy these legislators.

    What is wrong with us?
    • ...we still can't wait to see X-Men XVII, The Matrix Reloaded Again and Again, Armageddon III, Terminator XV, et. al. We still put money in their pockets, the same money they use to buy these legislators. What is wrong with us?

      Americans are sheep. We have to be told what to do and what to buy. We have bought into this status and money game, we are consumers. Why was there a Hummer driving next to me on the commute to work today? Why is there an insane amount of suburban sprawl? Why is the answer to s

  • Germany. Europe. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by glMatrixMode ( 631669 ) on Sunday April 13, 2003 @05:46PM (#5723491)
    Ok, this post most probably won't be rated as 'informative' but too bad. I've got some karma to waste to tell how I'm feeling right now.

    This is the lowest point since last June, when Palladium was announced. At that time I thought, if Americans want to sell their freedom to Valenti&Rosen, that's their problem, and this piece of suicidal legislation will never pass in Europe because Europe is just soooo cultivated - or so I thought.

    Today, Europe's most cultivated country adopts the DMCA. The other european countries are likely to follow. Even the UK - who has always been good at preserving its freedom - will fall, because he won't dare to offend the US. France will fall in the end : although she likes very much to disagree with the US, and although she values citizenship higher than any economic consideration, she can't do much without Germany.

    So, DMCA, Palladium, Longhorn, all that will be in Europe just as soon as in the USA. Palladium hardware is already being manufactured - think about the Opteron. The Palladium OS, Longhorn, will be released in 2005 or 2006. Somewhat later, when critical mass will be reached, the 'secure network' will be activated, thus cutting us from the mainstream network.

    The question is no longer how to avoid it. The only thing that could have prevented it from happening was lack of international cooperation. Even the USA were not mighty enough to kill alone the internet. International cooperation was needed. There it is.

    The question is how long it will take before people react. The main factors that are going to maintain them asleep are :
    1) vast availability of media contents on the palladium network
    2) patriotism, excited by fear (of terrorism, of piracy...)
    3) ignorance : not everybody understands why palladium is so bad.

    Reason 1) is definitely the most dreadful. Because 2) and 3) can only be temporary, or so I think. But think of the 'brave new world' book by Huxley and you'll understand how I feel about 1).

  • Can anyone from germany teach you how to do it. After all, you guys must do something to get your tax worth.

  • WIPO and EUCD (Score:3, Informative)

    by 3247 ( 161794 ) on Monday April 14, 2003 @04:04AM (#5726464) Homepage
    If you really felt safe on this side of the pond (or are still feeling safe anywhere), you are just plain ignorant.

    The protection of DRMS - the controversial part of the DMCA - has never been an US-only law. It is also part of the WIPO Copyright Treaty [wipo.int] (WCT) currently signed by 51 countries [wipo.int], including the European Communities and all of its member states.

    While the WCT could theoretically be ignored by its signatories as there's no legal system to enforce its implementation, this is different for the European Communities member states: The EC has implemented the WCT as a EC Directive (Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society [eu.int]), which is binding to all EC member countries. It had to be implemented until 22 Dec 2002 (yes, last year).

    So, one should note that:
    • You have to expect similar laws in all major industry nations (and some nations you haven't even heard of, especially if you're American)
    • Political action agains national laws does not help much: You can only reach the least bad solution possible within the scope of International Law.
      To really change something, you have to address the WCT (and the EUCD).

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