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DMCA-Alikes Sweep Europe 281

Posted by timothy from the heavy-linkage-send-help dept.
D4C5CE writes "The number of European countries enacting their ignorance of the sad experiences from Four Years under the DMCA has just risen to 5, as the Upper House (Bundesrat, incidentally) of the German Parliament on Friday failed to veto (sorry, some press releases are only available in heavily spin-doctored German Legalese at this point in time) and is hence considered to have consented to the adoption by the Lower House (Bundestag) of a federal law implementing the dreaded DMCA's European sibling known as EU Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC." Read on for more on the copyright laws being considered around the EU.

D4C5CE continues: "Earlier implementations have been reported from Austria, Denmark, Greece and Italy.
Legal scholars consider the directive itself an invalid "monstrosity", and the German law unconstitutional. In fact, this legislation is viewed as so terribly awful that even from the U.S., the EFF tried to prevent it in a rare intervention overseas.

Declaring that the circumvention rather than the use of Copy Protection is a Crime, the German parliament threatens to make things even worse by adopting a "second stage" with further steps to impose DRM and additional levies later this year, but unsurprisingly, all of the issues that DMCA-style laws have become notorious for are already there: Overbreadth, overprotection of technical measures, and Chilling Effects aplenty.

Record companies eagerly awaiting this "lex Bertelsmann" have already caused ISPs to send out warning letters to P2P users for alleged copyright infringement, and are expected to take legal action against individual users of file-sharing networks, following in the footsteps of RIAA.

Confirming the fears expressed by Alan Cox on Slashdot, computer gurus will soon find no place left to go even on the European side of the pond, and the Free-X "Independence Day" XBox exploit posted by one brave German just in time before this dismal day may well have been one of the very last legal disclosures in this part of the world as well."
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DMCA-Alikes Sweep Europe More

DMCA-Alikes Sweep Europe

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  • Not Ignorance (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14, 2003 @03:05AM (#6432366)
    The number of European countries enacting their ignorance..

    No, it is not ignorance, it is Corporate Control. And don't fool yourself, both left and right alike are controlled by corporations, in almost every country.

    • Re:Not Ignorance (Score:3, Insightful)

      by kramer2718 ( 598033 )
      I do agree that this legislation has passed because of the coporate control of the politicians. However, it is the people's ignorance of the issues that has allowed these laws to pass. Of course much of that ignorance is due to corporate control of the media.

      I do think that you should be a little careful in saying that both the laft and right are controlled by corporations. For instance, greenpiece and Tim McVey (the left and right respectively) are not controlled by corporations. I think you mean th

      • Re:Not Ignorance (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Halo1 ( 136547 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @03:40AM (#6432467)
        I completely agree with you. The FFII [ffii.org] unfortunately didn't exist yet when this directive went through the European Parliament and there was (almost?) no organised lobbying or protest. Now the FFII does exist however and is actively working on preventing software patents from being legalised in Europe.

        I personally went to the EP for 3 days last week and there really are an incredible amount of MEPs who did not have any idea at all about how bad the current proposal is and who became quite supportive of us after we explained the situation to them. Informing politicians is not the job of the media, but largely of their assistants. Informing the assistants is a job of lobbying groups and individuals.

        If you don't contact any politicians or their assistants, you cannot expect them to hear your concerns (although it would be really nice, of course). They vote on about 60 dossiers per week in the EP, so they just don't have the time to go actively looking for information about each and every one of those. Each party has its own specialist for different subjects. The specialists from each faction then create a voting list together, which more often than not is followed blindly by the rest of the faction (since they don't know anything about the dossier).

        This is obviously not an ideal situation, since those specialists often have an agenda to push. So informing as many politicians as possible about your point of view is indeed what is necessary. Some will refer you to their local specialist, but most certainly not all of them.

  • too far (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Fux the Pengiun ( 686240 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @03:05AM (#6432368)
    WOW. This is too far even for me. I've posted several times on Slashdot in favor of limited DRM, simply out of concern for artists, but from the links the submitter provided, it's obvious the EU has gone too far. Check the "EU Copyright Directive Link".
    Violation or
    suspected violation of international copyright may result in a fine of 2,000 Euros, or imprisionment of a term not to exceed nine months.
    Look, I'm all for digital rights, but that's going too far. Jail time? Maybe an overnight stay with Bubba in cell block 3 will convince some college student that piracy is wrong, but this is too much. Ruining somebody's life because they didn't pay Sir Mixalot for downloading "baby got back?" Damn, that's harsh! And I thought Europe would be more enlightened than that. Oh well...just goes to show you...no place is safe these days.
    • The directive simply has no such clause. You didn't even say which memeber state has that gem in their legislation.. Germany?
    • And I thought Europe would be more enlightened than that. Oh well...just goes to show you...no place is safe these days.

      If you think long and hard enough, maybe you'd come to the conclusion that Asia is the safest place to be in? Less hypocrisy, more actual freedom, more talent, more fulfilment. Time to move?

      Let the falmes begin.

      • And non-Latin languages that are horrificly difficult for Westerners to learn. Ah, when will the world speak English? :-) Or a universal translator would do.

      • More Freedom? (Score:3, Informative)

        by The Cydonian ( 603441 )
        Freedom has, obviously, many connotations, but let me stick to one, namely economic freedom, ignoring for the moment, the bigger and more directly-affecting political freedom.

        In the just concluded free trade negotiations between the US and Singapore, one of the sticking points (pun shamelessly lifted from countless news reports) was the so-called "Wrigley Clause":- the legalisation of sale of gum on "medical" grounds. Singapore, paranoid about its sparkingly clean and efficient subway doors getting stuck w

    • Look, I'm all for digital rights, but that's going too far. Jail time? Maybe an overnight stay with Bubba in cell block 3 will convince some college student that piracy is wrong, but this is too much. Ruining somebody's life because they didn't pay Sir Mixalot for downloading "baby got back?"

      Specially when you look at the facts, this is just an attemptof badly run megacorporations to enforce their failed business model. Nobody expects all current filesharers to be put in jail because of this (there ar

    • Seen from the side that even a "suspected violation" can get you fined, the Germans have just proven they follow some 60 year old traditions again.

      And with German lawyers very triggerhappy to send out cease-and-desist letters, it won't get any better. Luckily, we don't have any of this crap one country south yet.
    • Hmm... I suspect that every executive of an RIAA company has personally violated my copyright. I suspect that all of the German legislators have, too. Perhaps you suspect something similar...

      Of course, some RIAA companies have been convicted of massive copyright violation in the past (on song lyrics, for which they failed to pay royalties to the owners), so it wouldn't be too surprising if they actually had copyright violations sufficient to put them away for life.
  • It's only laws being passed. Sure it might suck for a while, but ultimately we have the power to fight these laws no matter what they come up with.
    It's like they say, never, ever, piss off your system admin

  • The root cause ? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14, 2003 @03:06AM (#6432373)
    Don't forget it's mostly because of the US (and US companies) pressuring Europe into their legislation.

    • Re:The root cause ? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by tsa ( 15680 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @04:12AM (#6432545) Homepage
      That's not true, it's the spineless ignorant European politicians that don't stand up to these companies because they are afraid of the wrath of America. When will the EU learn that Europe is a huge continent with a very important market that could have a significant impact on world politics and economics if only they stopped arguing about petty little things and concentrate on important things for once?

      • No, it's competition, but the downside. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MickLinux ( 579158 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @05:46AM (#6432770) Journal
        My brother predicted this, about 4 years back. Essentially, he said that America had been the vanguard (note the past-perfect tense) of justice; this made American business more profitable, and meant that if other countries wanted to keep up, they had to have some reasonable fraction of the same kind of justice.

        But as our ignoring the constitution accelerated, it became clear that American justice was not functioning properly, and American business immediately began to hurt. So my brother saw that this was going to happen [remember, 4 years ago we were still in the boom], and predicted that we would see petty dictatorships rise everywhere. Indeed, it happens.

        Oh, well. It is indeed a sad day. Europe had the chance to become the leader of justice, and indeed when Lithuania was considering entering, I considered it more of an advantage than a disadvantage, provided that there was good will.

        After all, more free trade is better than less free trade. More natural rights is better than more granted rights. Better for the economy, better for the human condition, better, even, for morality.

        It seemed there was more of all that. Now I begin to wonder.

      • What about the European supporters? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by MyNameIsFred ( 543994 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @06:56AM (#6432971)
        No question the US government companies have backed such legislation. But there are many large European companies that also back this legislation. To blame the US and only the US is naive. Take for example one of the world's biggest media companies, Vivendi-Universal, its a French company. Or Murdoch and his media conglomerate, he's an Australian...
        • Take for example one of the world's biggest media companies, Vivendi-Universal, its a French company.

          And along with another French company, Suez, they control 40% of the worlds water supplies. America might lead with the fake free-market spin, but there are just as many European corporations happy to tag along (or even take the lead).

    • Re:The root cause ? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by nutshell42 ( 557890 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @06:10AM (#6432833) Journal
      Nope, it's European companies whining "*sniff*Want that too, *cry*moving to the US otherwise, *dissolving in tears* thousands of jobs lost.

      The next day they have their legislation because noone seems to realize that the corporations would have at least as much to lose as the countries they'd leave

    • Re:The root cause ? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by panurge ( 573432 )
      In the case of Germany, Italy and the UK, I imagine it's because so much investment is in the US. The European economy is weakened, perhaps fatally in the long term, by the long period in which so much investment went into US equities because Europe was perceived as stagnant and the US as the engine of growth. European stock markets seem largely to depend on US levels except that (in the case of the UK at least) when the Dow falls the UK markets fall more, when it rises they rise more slowly. This just refl

    • Re:The root cause ? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by infolib ( 618234 )
      It doesn't help that there's been very few people fighting this from the beginning. Check the EUCD status page [wiki.ael.be]. Of the groups listed there, most didn't exist five years ago. Now we are teaming up, making sure we won't be late next time. (The directive was passed spring 2001, no protests)

      I believe these organizations are going to make a real difference in the coming years. If you live in Europe, contact the nearest, especially if you are eastern european (We need contacts in the soon-to-be-EU countries)

  • Lack of coverage (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kramer2718 ( 598033 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @03:16AM (#6432403) Homepage
    One of the main reasons that the DMCA has caused so little controversy in mainstream American society (no, Slashdot is not mainstream) is that the conventional media has pretty much refused to cover it.

    I'm just curious but have any Slashdot readers from Germany, Austria, Denmark, Greece, or Italy noticed any significant coverage in the media of these euro-DMCA laws? Also, what does the local reaction seem to be? Do most people know enough about the issues to care?

    • Re:Lack of coverage (Score:3, Informative)

      by Troed ( 102527 )
      Oh there is coverage (Sweden) .. it's along the lines of: "There will be a new law that will make it illegal to decrypt satellite/cable TV you're not subscribing to" and such examples. Joe Public just goes "uh hum .. yeah .. well .. I guess that's good .. I will still keep on doing it".

      No one is bringing up the _bad_ examples of what this law can do to you. The law hasn't been enacted in Sweden yet, but when it is I'll probably have to stop helping out in hacking the Xbox in various ways myself.

      One note t
      • I am reading the proposal frm the swedish justice department right now - 600 pages whoooa - well I will weite an ansver since I represent 1 out of 104 officials reviewers of the law peoposal.

        The review has to be in by middle of september wnd if it can't be stopped it will be law in Sweden at 1 of janurary 2004.

    • Re:Lack of coverage (Score:3, Informative)

      by olethrosdc ( 584207 )
      I am not currently living in Greece, but none of my friends there seem to be aware that the law has passed. I think it has received no coverage whatsoever. I also think that, whatever coverage it does receive would be positive in the sense of 'finally the rights of artists are protected against evil pirates' positive.

    • the conventional media has pretty much refused to cover it.

      Duh. The "conventional media" is 100% owned and operated by the same companies that are benefiting from this law. Do you REALLY think they're going to speak out against something that gives them all the powers of law enforcement with none of the restrictions?

      • This is not true. In Denmark, the national broadcasting corp (dr.dk) was lobbying against the "anti-circumvention" provisions. They recently had to go to court to secure the right to use harddrives as intermediate storage for the songs they play. Obviously, they don't think it's cool that technical copy restrictions suddenly have legal authority.

  • Does not matter (Score:5, Informative)

    by 00_NOP ( 559413 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @03:19AM (#6432407) Homepage
    In the end it doesn't matter whether this or that member state of the EU adopts the law. Three years after the directive is adopted it is justiciable in the European Court of Justice and states which haven't implemented it in domestic law can be taken to court and their domestic courts have to follow the precedent set by the ECJ.

    • Re:Does not matter (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Arker ( 91948 )

      In the end it doesn't matter whether this or that member state of the EU adopts the law. Three years after the directive is adopted it is justiciable in the European Court of Justice and states which haven't implemented it in domestic law can be taken to court and their domestic courts have to follow the precedent set by the ECJ.

      How can this be claimed to be consistent with the ideal of 'democracy' that the eurocrats are always blathering about? An unelected group of beaureacrats draft a 'directive' which

      • Re:Does not matter (Score:2, Insightful)

        by pork_spies ( 659663 )
        Well, there are issues about how this directive could be translated into domestic law - it could be in a hard hitting way or it could be in a softer way.

        One the democracy point the issue is this: this matter should have been tackled when the question of principle came up in 2001, not now.
    • Three years after the directive is adopted it is justiciable in the European Court of Justice and states which haven't implemented it in domestic law can be taken to court

      By the same token, why can't England be forced to adopt the Euro? Looks like such restrictions are only for convenience.
    • So it's a good thing the union will break up in 2013...

  • Is anyone surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OzPhIsH ( 560038 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @03:22AM (#6432418) Journal
    Does this really surprise anyone? Most people don't care about the issues in general, much less this one. Those who do care, and try to be vocal about it are simply paid no attention to by our governments, no matter what the nationality. We're slowly losing the ability to control what we do with our technology, our knowledge, and our lives. I keep waiting for something to give, for that final straw where more than just a few of us stand up and say 'No More!' but it hasn't happened. I fear it won't happen in my life time.
    • I keep waiting for something to give, for that final straw where more than just a few of us stand up and say 'No More!' but it hasn't happened.

      If you have seen the light, it's enough for your lifetime. Read Alan Cox's answer to the last question in the referenced article. There's many things you could interest yourself in - don't worry over things you don't control.

  • no more MP3 players (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MoFoYa ( 644563 ) <mofoya@gmail.com> on Monday July 14, 2003 @03:24AM (#6432422)
    [article]"6.1 Makes it illegal to circumvent a protection measure. Note that there is no requirement to show that the person who does the circumvention did it in order to infringe copyright law. Circumventing for the sake of making a copy of a music file you have bought in order to listen to it on your portable MP3 player is just as illegal as circumventing in order to put the music on Napster."

    whats the point of creating technology that plays compressed music files to enable us to carry around loads of our (paid for) music in a small package if they make it illegal. the whole idea was to make it easy to listen to all of my CD's anywhere without a huge CD wallet bulging at the seams. the napster phenomenon was a different issue totaly, but now it's twisting MP3's from the beautiful thing they were, to a taboo that can land you in jail.

    it's not the technology's fault, it's the users fault. guns don't kill people, people kill people - right? well, MP3 players don't steal MP3's. if i can no longer rip MY CD's and upload them to MY player without pissing off some litigator somewhere, then -- F*#% the bozos.
    • It makes it illegal to circumvent an effective protection measure. I don't think cd-like products qualify.

      • Re:no more MP3 players (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        "It makes it illegal to circumvent an effective protection measure"

        If you can circumvent a protection, haven't you also proved the protection measure to be of no effect?
        A locked door which can easily be opened shouldn't be considered a locked door. At least that's what the insurance companies think.
        With these laws it's not up to me or you to decide what's effective. Some company can just use a simple shift a -> b encryption and then sue everyone who 'breaks it'. The 'effectiveness' of any protection mea
      • Art 6(2) EUCD

        "Technological measures shall be deemed "effective" where the use of a protected work or other subject-matter is controlled by the rightholders through application of an access control or protection process , such as encryption, scrambling or other transformation of the work or other subject-matter or a copy control mechanism, which achieves the protection objective. "

        i read this "effectiveness" not as "effective" in a technical sense, but in a legal one; indeed very effective legal protect
        • Still not convinced corrupting the audio stream in a CD qualifies. Seeing how it plays in regular CD player. In any case, it's up to the member states to actually pass laws to implement the directive. Finnish parliament took a time out since the directive is controversial (oh really?) wrt consumer rights. So the national laws are more or less reasonable than the directive text depending on the bone layer thickness quotient.

    • MP3s are a German invention too (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hughk ( 248126 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @04:46AM (#6432626) Journal
      This is particularly a shame because the inventor of the MP3 was the Fraunhofer Institute [fraunhofer.de] in Germany, a publicly funded research institute.

      MP3 players are popular in Germany, particularly now for cars (MP3/CD) where the compression means you don't need large and inconvenient changers.

      Bertelsmann are big though and control distribution rights for both souznd and video products in Germany. They have been lobbying for the implementation of this rule.

      However, the real problem is that it is an EU directive. Unless countries can prove a get out under subsidiarity, they must implement the directives or risk a large fine.

      The other problem is the multi-region DVD players on sale. This will certainly stop under this technical measures clause. Shame for all those people who want to look at non-region 2 DVDs, for example that large immigrant population from the former Soviet Union.

    • whats the point of creating technology that plays compressed music files to enable us to carry around loads of our (paid for) music in a small package if they make it illegal.

      Actually, that's probably the last thing they'd do. If they made MP3 players illegal, it'd get them a lot of bad press, such is the popularity now of MP3 players. They install them in new cars, for God's sake! MP3 players will probably be one of those things that's technically illegal, but they 'let it happen' anyway.
  • We (the USA) produce most of the world's copyrighted material, and we give out billions of dollars each year to other countries for free. If we want them to pass a law that favors us, they will all do it. They have little choice. If we decide applejuice needs to be outlawed, we'll get (via bribes and threats) every country in the world to outlaw it. What the US wants, it gets. As an American, I'm not sure how I feel about that. Were we wanting rational things, I suppose I'd be somewhat happy and maybe
    • and we give out billions of dollars each year to other countries for free.

      Say what? Of all the developed countries you give out the _least_ amount of money compared to the BNP ..

    • We (the USA) produce most of the world's copyrighted material, and we give out billions of dollars each year to other countries for free.

      I wonder why even intelligent Americans always seem to be convinced their country is the biggest single source of aid to poor countries. It's clear that this isn't true (Europe spends many, many times more on foreign aid than the US, as does Japan), yet Americans all think they're the great benefactors of the world...

      The key to the USA's global dominance is that they

    • We (the USA) produce most of the world's copyrighted material, and we give out billions of dollars each year to other countries for free.

      Er, no, and no.

      You produce most of the world's internationaly distributed copyright material (wich is a minority of the total of copyrighted material).

      And you loan billions of dollars, with a lot of strings attached.

  • Why the waste of bandwidth? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14, 2003 @03:41AM (#6432470)
    Looking at the comments that have been posted so far, most appear to be around the "America vs Europe" contest that is ongoing on Slashdot, or "Who do we blame for this?" along with the usually lame trolls.

    How about instead, people put some thought into the possibilities of beating some sort of system and what the actual outcome of such regulation would be? There are a lot of clever people in this community and occasionally it's nice to hear what one of them has to say.

    1. Will it just be the large coporates who put out DRM protecred media meaing that people who do not get the share of the consumers wallet.

    2. Is this going to be like prohibition in the '20s where speakeasy joints for music trading spring up around the world.

    3. How practical is it to build an encrypted freenet or something entirely separate from the regular 'Internet' which would allow a sort haven from this type of legislation?

    4. Will we just end up as a fractional online society where certain geographical areas of the world (Far East, emerging African states) continue to pump out copies by the ton?

    Anyone care to put in a serious comment?

    Nah! This is /. after all...

    • How about instead, people put some thought into the possibilities of beating some sort of system and what the actual outcome of such regulation would be?

      I think we need to hack up some way to keep a cashflow going from end-user to creators, be it music, film, software or underlying technological infrastructure.

      I think it is counterproductive to insist on control of copies, or private monopolies, enforced with copyrights or patents. However, those who do the job need to eat, and it is also counterp

  • It is not only the EuroDMCA... (Score:4, Informative)

    by kaip ( 92449 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @03:53AM (#6432497) Homepage

    The EU Copyright Directive is not the only worry. EU is also considering IPR Enforcement Directive which would add even more DMCA-like protections to technical measures. IPR Enforcement Directive would also introduce a "conviction of shame": if you are found guilty of rights infringment you must publish the judgement in a publication chosen by the rights owner at your own cost. See a statement by Electronic Frontier Finland [effi.org] on the proposed directive.

    (For what it is worth, the Finnish parliament did not pass the national implementation of the EU Copyright Directive [effi.org].)

    • Re:It is not only the EuroDMCA... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @04:29AM (#6432588) Homepage

      I remember hearing a BBC article on the difference betwee the Finnish and British governments. You (yes, you, Joe Public, even Joe Foreigner) can just walk in off the street to the residence of the Finnish Prime Minister, and ask to see any government related document. And they don't peer at you in a suspicious manner and tell you they'll get back to you in two years after checking your security clearance, they smile and fetch it straight away, and get you coffee while you're waiting. For example, they fetched some of the personal correspondance between Tony Blair and the Finnish Prime Minister, the actual original letters, and just handed them over, no questions, no bullshit.

      Contrast with asking for copies of the same correspondance in the UK. The UK Freedom of Information act gives you every right to see them, but when the BBC asked for them, they were given the run around, passed from department to department in Whitehall, each one of which expressed amazement that anyone would ask for this. They were eventually fobbed off by being told that such correspondance was classified, too secret to be seen. They said that they'd already seen it, and that it talked mostly about football. This produced outright disbelief, and vague threats about carrying out "further investigation" on the reporter.

      I think that sums up the spectrum in Europe. In some places, there is a genuine openness and willingness to trust Joe Public. In others, the citizen is treated with suspicion and disdain.

      My hope is that we move towards the Finnish position. My fear is that we'll all end up more like Britain.

    • would add even more DMCA-like protections to technical measures.

      That's unfortunately a blunder in the EFF statement. Read the directive [eu.int] yourself. The article in question is article 21:

      "technical device" means any technology, [...] designed for the manufacture of authentic goods and the incorporation therein of elements which are manifestly identifiable by customers and consumers and which make it easier to recognise the goods as being authentic.

      So, for instance, unless, say, CSS is "manifestly id

  • Didn't learn? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14, 2003 @03:56AM (#6432507)
    I'd say they learned all too well from our experience with the DMCA. Our opinion of the DMCA means nothing to those in power, nor to those pushing for DMCA-like laws. I know it will come as a big surprise, but none of the copyright holders nor politicians have been intimidated by a bunch of whiners on /.

    This is exactly what the copyright holders want, and is exactly what the copyright holders' donations bought them.

    When I read and discuss this here, I'm unable to imagine how the DMCA and its ilk continue getting support. But then I leave my house and talk to ordinary people, and they have no idea what the DMCA is nor how it impacts them. And, amazingly, if they do know they usually parrot some of the "pirating is bad" BS they hear in the press.

    You'll be surprised, but millions will probably actually be intimidated by the upcoming prosecutions by the RIAA of individuals downloading music, and they will stop. Remember, these are the same Average Joes that believe Microsoft can track their email and Bill Gates will send them thousands of dollars for forwarding chain letters.

  • A brilliant idea (Score:5, Funny)

    by SubliminalLove ( 646840 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @04:20AM (#6432568)
    I just had the greatest idea. The law states that you get up to nine months in prison for violation, right?

    Okay, everyone in Germany needs to turn themselves in for... oh, say, copying a CD that had some sort of protection on it. I can't wait to see the innovations they come up with for storing five million new pale and obese felons.
    • Do you really think that you could even get 5 people, let alone 5 million people, to turn themselves in?

      If you have a felony on your record, you'll find it very hard to get a job, get credit for a mortgage or car loan, or anything else. That risk alone (and the risk of going to jail) will scare many people away from even thinking about turning themselves in, even if they have done something against the law.

      On the other hand, if you can prove via statistics that 90% of the population has copied at least o
      • > Do you really think that you could even get 5 people, let alone 5 million people, to turn themselves in?

        Sure. What would be even more interesting would be - could you get your local cops to charge you? ;-)

        That would create an interesting paradox - show up at your local police station, confess to having downloaded 100 MP3z and having burned them to CD for long road trips.

        What good is a law when nobody enforces it?

        (And for that matter, what's the statute of limitations on the DMCA? Will we ev

  • Australia has one too... (Score:5, Informative)

    by chriskenrick ( 89693 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @04:26AM (#6432579)
    Even tech literate Aussies don't seem to know this, but we already adopted our own DMCA-alike.

    See here [gigalaw.com] for details.
  • At the risk of being modded Flamebait... it does appear that both continents are inevitably compelled to act similarly. Instances - Iraq, NATO, DMCA, MS anti-trust case etc.. Presently the US seems to have the upper hand, in that it can act more independently, and care less about repercussions from pissing off own citizens...

    OTOH, Europe adopting this attitude (London traffic monitoring, inaction against Corporations, resistance to Euro, etc..) is sickening, given it's history and respect to tradition. Lin
    • At the risk of being modded Flamebait

      I think you should be modded -1 Plain Wrong.

      it does appear that both continents are inevitably compelled to act similarly. Instances - Iraq

      Ahem... what?? Iraq was an example of one of the biggest splits of opinion between the US and certain EU countries ever!!!

      , NATO

      Again, Iraq caused quite a big split in NATO too.

      , DMCA

      I'll give you this one. The EU's copying the dumb US law word for word.

      , MS anti-trust case

      Eh? The US didn't get anywhere against M
  • I am living in the UK. I went on Saturday down to my local markets and bougth from a stall in plain view of everyone Terminator 3 (really naff btw), charlies angels and dark blue. The police here don't even enforce current copyright laws. What a joke!!

  • Them or us ? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Let's face it; there is no "them or us".
    If internet has done /anything/ it is showing people of different backgrounds that we're pretty much alike. I, like you undoubtedly, have met people from all over the world, chatted with them a bit, and wondered where all there "misunderstandings" like that cold-war came from, since they're not that different from me.
    What gives birth to these "misunderstandings" is "them or us" thinking. It breeds fear, and promotes the wrong kind of people into power.

    If slashdot sho
    • I write this as a fervent anti-USA fanboy, because I don't like what your country does (promote horrid fast-food chains, promote dumb commercial television/channels, spread the belief that once you have a lot of money it doesn't matter how you got it, and overpromoted godawfull pop-music).

      Last I checked the US government doesn't come over to a European nation with an armored brigade and force people at gunpoint to go into McDonalds, buy Coke, watch American-style TV, or make people buy music they don't wa
  • Here's another one for you... Our company (0 employees, no xerox) recently got a bill for 45 euro's for "an estimated number of copies made of copy-protected work". Seems like some Dutch organisation is now capable on sending these bills on behalf of ...yeah, of who?

    My "company" helps starting artists to get a visible spot on the web to showcase and sell their art. So if there's any organisation that should be on the receiving side of this law, it should be ours. However, the information only goes as far a
    • Wow, they've outsourced corporate welfare. Now, instead of having bureaucrats dinging you with excessive taxes, you can now experience the joy of having spammer/telemarketer/collection agency scum knocking at your door to collect "usage fees", payable direct to your local megacorporation.

      What do we have to do, band together and form a corporation to sue them before they sue us? And we have elected governments for what then? :P

  • Stupid Americans and their DMCA (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    er... oops.
  • due to the eu the next world war (or should it now be called a 'civil war') will take place. i`m guessing within the next 2 decades. seeing as when a country joins the eu they're going to be bound by a constitution meaning they cannot EVER leave the eu. which means the eu can only break apart when either ALL countries agree (not gunna happen) or if there's a war, which there will be.

    the eu is a big dictatorship in the making, they're taking over countries with a "one size fits all" attitude, with disreguar

  • The DMCA will never reach outside the US (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gosand ( 234100 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @09:22AM (#6433254)
    I seem to remember non-Americans stating right here on Slashdot that the DMCA was a US problem, because nothing like that would ever pass on their shores. They would never stand for it!

    Well, let's see it Europeans.

    I was really hoping you were right.

  • Jebus f'ing christ -- ITS THE WTO! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SubtleNuance ( 184325 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @09:49AM (#6433430) Journal
    Do you know that the DMCA is the result of a treaty passed by the WIPO (itself a cousin of WTO)? When you see people, protesting in the streets to end the WTO treaties -- THE DMCA IS JUST ONE UNDEMOCRATIC, ANTI-CITIZEN products of the WTO!!

    For all the times on /. ive posted this link, and other bits that let people know exactly where the DMCA is coming from -- no one seems to put two and two together.

    Please read below:anti-dmca.org/faq_local.html [anti-dmca.org]

    For the Pro-public domain crowd at /., who dont support overbearing copyright law, do you realize, that the people who are protesting in the streets -- the world over -- against the WTO are on your side ? This /. crowd, being very in-tune with IP and Technology are just one small group, angry and frustrated with the DMCA. The DMCA is a PRODUCT of un-democratic bodies like the WTO -- literally funded by massive multi-nationals -- who are re-writing international relations in order to entrench their power. The DMCA is just ONE MINOR aspect of this effort.

    The USA's corrupt, plutocratic government is only partly responsible for the DMCA, in reality, they have empowered the bureaucracy to take their weight and allow it to be wielded by the Lobbyists and Lawyers of International Capitalists.

    It doesnt matter if you think Im a crazed (i am not) anti-capitalist (i am), the reality is that Corporate Bodies are very literally writing international treaties, that are later enforced in the domestically in the USA, Canada, Australia, EU etc etc etc. The WTO is staffed / funded by the International Plutocrats... * THEY * are responsible for the DMCA -- your corrupt Congress is only an after-thought in the DMCA effort.. and all the rest.
    • Erm... if this is true, why is it that Canada has no such law, either enacted or drafted for legislation? Sure, we have a few somewhat draconian laws (levies on blank media being the most obvious), but nothing so onerous as the DMCA.
  • I'm a US citizen, and I do not like seeing this happen in other countries.

    Other countries need to stand up to the United States and the WTO, and say "no." I'm sure most people in Europe do not want Europe to become exactly like the United States.

    Tell your politicians that you do not want the European Union to turn into the "United States East," which it is slowly (maybe not so slowly anymore) becoming.

    This "DMCA in Europe" is likely being pushed through by the WTO, which seems to serve the interests of
  • The real guage of the success of the DMCA will be in the USA. If it rises in the USA, there will effectively be economic pressures to make it rise everywhere - if it fails in the USA it the same pressures will cause it to fail everywhere. The reason for this is simple - the US was the first to get a tase of the information age, and was the first to feel the heat from copyrights effectively becoming unenforcable.

  • That's the last straw (Score:3, Funny)

    by Kphrak ( 230261 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @11:55AM (#6434414) Homepage

    I've had enough of draconian legislation that infringes on my rights online. I'm moving to Europe!

    Oh...wait...

  • On May 1st 2004, the three Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, will join the European Union (EU). These countries, as former USSR republics, belong to DVD region 4, while all the other members in 2004 will belong to DVD region 2.

    From the very beginning, the EU has been about the creation of a single market and the removal of internal barriers against the circulation of people, goods, services, and capital. So if a good is legally in the EU, it is free to move anywhere within the EU without any


  • Anyone have any status of DMCA like laws here in Canada?
  • We have lost. Its just a matter of cleaning up the mess.

    The rights of the people are pretty much gone. While we believe some still exist, that is only because we either have not noticed, or 'they' haven't decided to remove them officially.

    Its all down hill from here. If more people would have stood up when it mattered we might not be in this boat now, on the river to total control.

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