EU About To Consider Stringent Anti-Sharing Law 76
chrestomanci writes " The Register have just posted a news item about the EU IP Rights Enforcement Bill. Theres is an editorial about the issue in PC Magazine. The bill if passed would give intellectual property holders draconian powers to enforce their IP against infringers. The powers available include sending rent-a-cops to private homes, seizing assets, freezing bank accounts, and confiscating and ISP's equipment on suspicion.
Any of these powers could be used against a 12-year-old file sharer, as easily as against a large scale commercial piracy operation
The bill has been proposed by the French MEP Janelly Fourtou, whose husband is the the head of Vivendi Universal. She has placed the bill on a 'First Reading' track that does not allow debate, and is normally reserved for bills with near unanimous support. The deadline for amendments is today.
If you are a European citizen it is time to write to your Member of the European Parliament. The final vote will be between the 8th and 11th March." (We mentioned this a few weeks ago, too.)
sharing (Score:4, Funny)
Re:sharing (Score:2)
OH MY GOD! (Score:4, Insightful)
Won't somebody please think of the children? This is exactly why we have exemptions in the law for children who murder and steal, as they should be protected. The little darlings.
danger! danger! (Score:4, Insightful)
I can see this being a real problem to any isp with a newsgroup server.
Re:The big advantage to the EU passing this law no (Score:5, Insightful)
Ahem. Are you quite sure about that [nationmaster.com]? And just to drive the point home: Are you quite sure about that [nationmaster.com]?
I am guessing you don't live in Europe. I am constantly amused by Americans who think Europe is this backwater continent which is not quite up to date with respect to the rest of the world. It may have been true 50 years old. It's no longer the case.
Re:The big advantage to the EU passing this law no (Score:3, Interesting)
If anything, America was most recently a cultural backwater (during the late 1800's) and has only relatively recently become 'civilised'.
Re:The big advantage to the EU passing this law no (Score:4, Insightful)
I would have modded you wrong. Sadly there is no "wrong" mod so I'm replying in stead...
Please tell me where you have your information. How is internet acceptance much slower in EU than in US? 81% of the danish population have internet access at home according to Dansk Statistik [statistikbanken.dk].
Ummm, NO (Score:3, Interesting)
When the standard-issue starts kicking in my door, without a PROPER search warrant, executed and issued by a JUDGE, is when I start considering violence, and start shooting back.
When I was in the US Army years ago, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States - I am no longer in the Army, but still consider that oath to be valid.
"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the president of the United States and the orders of the Officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the uniform code of military justice.
So help me God!"
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:2)
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:3, Insightful)
When the standard-issue starts kicking in my door, without a PROPER search warrant, executed and issued by a JUDGE, is when I start considering violence, and start shooting back.
The issue here is that a "proper" search warrant could now be issued by a music label. Scary.
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:3, Insightful)
Besides, they can't issue search warrants, only subpoenas, big difference.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,11396
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:1, Interesting)
I sure don't recognize that as a proper search warrant, and recent court rulings back me up on this.
I think you are missing the point. It doesn't matter if you don't recognise it as valid, the law would. And "recent court rulings" wouldn't matter either as they are attempting to change the law.
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess maybe there is a very small chance that while your noble struggle goes on, your neighbours may see and just decide they want to help, and perhaps this could snowball and create a proletariat revolution, but I really don't think so. It's definitely better to get arrested, and then create a better strategy for the revolution.
Live FREE or die (Score:4, Interesting)
The police aren't the law... WE are the law. We set this government up, and WE have the right to override/revise/replace it.
--Mike--
Re:Live FREE or die (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Live FREE or die (Score:2)
Re:Live FREE or die (Score:2)
I fully agree, but most people don't think so. Most people are such a bunch of sheep that they consider things ethicly right or wrong depending on it's legality.
Which is fscked up beyond beilef. People seem to forget that they are officially in charge in a democracy. They have a right to disagree.
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:3, Interesting)
I hope I don't sound like some kind of extremist whacko here, I'm not. I don't even own a gun. But thats not the point. I'll get one soon enough, should the American justice system not overturn these illegal laws first, and the standard-issue starts kicking in doors willy-nilly. You HAVE to give the justi
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:1, Informative)
I'd resist, violently, without resorting to deadly violence, then sue the crap out of everyone involved.
If you are resisting violently, then don't be surprised when they resort to deadly violence. You can't "sue the crap out of everyone involved" if you are dead.
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:4, Insightful)
OK... I know you didn't intend this... but...
This kind of thinking, being totally subservient to "authority" figures... is one of the reasons that three airplanes made it to their intended target.
And, the government response has been to make Americans even more subservient by standing in long lines, taking their shoes off and bending over... for the real screwing. (and yes, I know that it is totally off topic... and the OP wasn't anything about America... but this particular thread of it is.)
The real solution is to constantly question and push back at "authority". That is the only way you are going to avoid being taken somewhere you don't want to go.
It's definitely better to get arrested, and then create a better strategy for the revolution.
See, I think the real lesson that every American should have learned from 9/11 (and applied to every part of life) is this:
Fight. Right now. You may never get another chance.
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:2, Insightful)
This kind of thinking, being totally subservient to "authority" figures... is one of the reasons that three airplanes made it to their intended target.
No it isn't. The passengers on those planes were quite simply rational. They knew that what usually happens in this situation is that they get flown off to some odd country, then get flown back. Compared with the cost of your own life when struggling with armed hijackers, it's easy to see that this has nothing to do with "subservience" and everything t
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:2)
You lost me with that line of thinking.
They refused to be subservient. Fought. And kept the terrorist from accomplishing their goals.
What about that blows my theory out of the water?
I am not talking about how one individual can increase their own chance for survival. I'm talking ab
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:1, Insightful)
They refused to be subservient.
No, they were confronted with the fact that the hijackers were intending to crash the plane. Their previous rational decision to not fight back was merely self-preservation, and when that changed, they fought back. It highlights the fact that the determining factor of whether they fight back or not is motivated by self-preservation and not some weird notion of oppressors always winning.
I am not talking about how one individual can increase their own chance for surviva
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:3, Interesting)
You are probably right for those people. Which, in a way, drives home my point. They were victims of their own apathy. It took a threat to their own life to make them care enough to fight back.
And, it was too late by then.
I think the two (oppression and survival) are linked. The more oppressors win, the lower you chance of survival.
Re:Ummm, NO (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do you think the right to keep and bear arms is important? Governments are very scary unless the price of tyrrany is to high to be realistic.
It's cool to die by your principles, but would you?
Living by your principles is what matters. If you die because you live a principed life, then you die rich.
just decide they want to help, and perhaps this could snowball and create a proletariat revolution
Unfortunately, I live in a bujoise nei
With a name like this... (Score:4, Funny)
BTW, Fourtou is translated in english as "fuck-all", I kid you not!
Re:With a name like this... (Score:2)
The correct translation of "fuck all" as in "fuck everyone" would be "foutre tous". If you mean "fuck all" as in "fuck everything" it would be "foutre tout".
If you really mean "fuck-all" as in "nothing" then well, you can't directly translate idioms... FWIW, "nothing" in French is "rien".
Re:With a name like this... (Score:1)
I should have been more specific in saying: in Canadian french... as opposed to just french.
Re:With a name like this... (Score:2)
Fourrer, is used in french slang (argot) to mean "fuck".
So "fourtou" can well be heard as "fourre tout" (wich is also a bag or a place where you put anything with no order), wich means "fuck all".
Its proper use:
fourrer [supertoinette.com]
Re:With a name like this... (Score:1)
Re:With a name like this... (Score:2)
Here's the article text (Score:3, Informative)
Civil liberties and consumer rights groups are calling on MEPs to reject the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive.
Today (3 March) is the last day that amendments can be tabled before the final debate and vote, from 8-11 March.
IP Justice, an international coalition of civil liberties groups and consumer rights activists, is organising a protest in Strasbourg to "uphold traditional civil liberties against the over-zealous enforcement of intellectual property rights". The meeting will be held outside the EU Parliament on 8 March between 4.30pm and 6.30pm.
The bill was introduced to make it easier to tackle large scale pirating operations, and to create a consistent, pan-European approach to intellectual property law. But many groups, including Campaign for an Open Digital Environment (CODE) and the EFF, are concerned about the way the bill has been rushed through the European Parliament.
The directive's Rapporteur, French MEP Janelly Fourtou, (who, incidentally, is wife of the head of Vivendi Universal) has placed it on a "First Reading". This is usually reserved for directives on which there is already unanimous agreement, and does not allow for public debate. This meant the directive could be drafted behind closed doors.
Civil rights groups want the proposal sent into a second reading, where its provisions can be publicly considered.
According to the BSA, 25 per cent of software in use in the UK is illegal. It claims that reducing this to 15 per cent would generate an extra 2.5bn in tax revenues and 40,000 jobs in the IT sector. It points out that organised crime gangs have moved into software piracy on a large scale, and argues that tough legislation is needed to stop this.
Few people would seriously oppose a law that would tackle these problems, and make it easier for industry to go after real criminals: the organised crime gangs, the people selling sub-standard software, or pirating thousands of videos.
However, this directive fails to distinguish between commercial counterfeiting, and inadvertent individual copyright infringement. This means a 12-year old P2P file sharer, or someone photocopying pages from a library text book at university, is seen as identical to a large scale piracy operation filtering money into organised crime.
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure UK (FFII-UK) proposed a set of amendments that it says would reduce the directive's harm to consumers, including limiting its scope to commercial cases.
As it stands, this directive grants some very scary powers to rights holders. Consider the Anton Piller orders: these enable rights holders to hire private police to raid a suspect's home.
This was previously restricted to very rare, large commercial infringers. The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) points out that now, anyone who infringes copyright - even unwittingly - may have his or her "assets seized, bank account frozen and home invaded".
The bill creates a new "Right of Information" that allows rights holders to obtain personal information on P2P file sharers. An ISP's servers can be seized and destroyed with no hearing if one of their customers is alleged to have infringed a copyright.
It fails to define the term 'intellectual property rights', so interpretation will vary hugely from country to country when/if the directive becomes law, undermining one of the main objectives of the legislation: harmonising EU law.
Neither the Business Software Alliance, nor the British Phonographic Industry was able to provide any comment on the implications of this directive for consumers before we went to press.
Just become a rights holder (Score:3, Interesting)
Then you can have the same powers to attack the big guys. Legally.
writing to MEP's (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:writing to MEP's (Score:2)
Welcome to the United States of Europe... (Score:4, Interesting)
The Eurpoean Union was a good idea when it was an economic union. Increasingly, however, European countries seem to be giving up thier individual sovereignty, and the result is legislation like this. Instead of removing economic restrictions to promote free trade, the EU is now creating new political and social restrictions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this was never it's original intent, right?
Re:Welcome to the United States of Europe... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Welcome to the United States of Europe... (Score:2)
Re:Welcome to the United States of Europe... (Score:1)
Re:Welcome to the United States of Europe... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: Losing rights (Score:4, Interesting)
We've got an educational system that pumps out standard model consumer units, instead of concerned Citizens. Only a few of us were fortunate enough to have a nasty childhood which had the benefit of distracting us from the brainwashing.
We unhappy few are pissed that we've got a system where the majority has been assimilated, and are willing to be sheep. We need to wake them up, or get them the hell out of the way, before this whole system implodes under its own weight... or as a last resort, figure out how to hunker down and ride out a rerun of Nazi Germany.
--Mike--
The 14th amendment? (Score:4, Informative)
-molo
Re:Welcome to the United States of Europe... (Score:1, Insightful)
The Eurpoean Union was a good idea when it was an economic union. Increasingly, however, European countries seem to be giving up thier individual sovereignty, and the result is legislation like this.
I disagree. The EU also gives us good laws, like the Bill of Human Rights. What you are complaining about is that any given lawmaking body is prone to having stupid laws proposed and occasionally passed.
Speaking as somebody from the UK, I have no inherent problem with giving up the UK's sovereignty in f
Re:Welcome to the United States of Europe... (Score:2)
Oh, that was the original intent alright, just not the *stated* intent.
I still get a chuckle though when I think back just a year or two ago whenever stories about encryption or the DMCA would run on slashdot. Invariably, citizens of the EU would post about how glad they were that they don't live in the US.
Re:Welcome to the United States of Europe... (Score:1, Insightful)
America and Europe still have their differences [fiskpinne.com].
War (Score:5, Insightful)
For the most blatent example, see the "free market" sell off of the assets of Iraq, completed before its people get a chance to react.
--Mike--
Re:Not on Front page?? (Score:2)
After having seen how things are dealt with in here, I assume that it's because it's the European Union, not the United States of America. Were this the latter, it'd be Front Page News. EU is not evil by definition whereas the USA is, so there ya go.
</mode>
What is the solution? (Score:2, Interesting)
the right to read (Score:3, Insightful)
Worth rehashing, because this story looks more and more normal every day, until we're going to discard it with a "naturally! and what are you complaining about ?"
Excerpt from the "The Right to Read" article:
For Dan Halbert, the road to Tycho began in college--when Lissa Lenz asked to borrow his computer. Hers had broken down, and unless she could borrow another, she would fail her midterm project. There was no one she dared ask, except Dan.
This put Dan in a dilemma. He had to help her--but if he lent her his computer, she might read his books. Aside from the fact that you could go to prison for many years for letting someone else read your books, the very idea shocked him at first. Like everyone, he had been taught since elementary school that sharing books was nasty and wrong--something that only pirates would do.
I'm glad! (Score:2)
What about constitutional rights? (Score:2)
This is really a desperate attempt, and I have a hard time believing this law will ever fly. There is no turning back the clock and these kind of asenine attempts will only estrange the general public even more from the current law. Fascism and free markets don't mix very well, since people tend to want to decide things for themselves and like to thi
makes no sense (Score:2)
Imposing an extra 2.5 billion pounds in taxes on revenues, plus an extra 25 billion pounds in costs on businesses, would be a huge minus for the economy, in particular given that a lot of those 25 billion pounds would be leaving Europe. And how is paying more money to the likes of Microsoft or Oracle going to c
works both ways (Score:3, Insightful)
OK, good, so when we believe Vivendi Universal is using GPL'ed software in violation of the provisions of the license, I guess that means we can have their corporate hardware and software seized and the homes of their corporate officers searched.
Furthermore, the amount of encrypted (so-called VPN) traffic entering and leaving their site clearly indicates that they must be running a covert file sharing network and using cryptography to share illegally obtained content.
These people are still living in the intellectual dark ages, where they think that they are the only ones who hold copyrights. I think if they started becoming aware what risks they expose their own companies to, they might tread a little more carefully with such proposals.
This will be coming to the US too (Score:2)
Re:Quick, share everything Vivendi. (Score:2, Interesting)
better,
Short a Vivendi stock toady!
They are nothing but a huge corporation in major trouble, it's going to be the "Enron of europe", very soon, and like a wounded beast they "die hard".
Incidentally I am familiar with Vivendi's "environmental" operations, who represent a huge part of thier busines and I can tell you that thier tactics are almost solely based around bribery of officials.
They deserve to die, especially now!
tie everything together so no one is safe (Score:2)
Conflict of interest? (Score:2)
Let no American complain about shady dealings with Halliburton when the French can let crap like that happen.
France, eh? (Score:2, Insightful)
What's the term... (Score:1)
like the article,
that describe societly where corporations rule and "Copyright infrigment" is a death penalty offence?
Here's what I wrote to MEPs (Score:1)
Dear Mr. Huhne,
Please could you use your influence to challenge the proposed EU directive on Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement which will be voted on on March 8th 2004. This directive as it stands is deeply flawed as it treats individual people who may unintentionally infringe copyright in the same way as ruthless criminals and counterfeiting gangs. Please support (on my behalf) an amendment to the directive which would target the master criminals rather than the ten year-old boy who tap