EU Commission Proposes Mandatory Piracy Filters For Online Services (torrentfreak.com) 62
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: During his State of the Union address today, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced several plans (PDF) to modernize copyright law in Europe. One of the suggestions that has a lot of people worried is Article 13, which requires online services to police pirated content. This means that online services, which deal with large volumes of user-uploaded content, must use fingerprinting and filtering mechanisms to block copyright infringing files. While the Commission stresses that small content platforms won't be subject to the requirement, the proposal doesn't define what "small" means. It also fails to define what "appropriate" or "effective" content recognition systems are, creating a fair bit of uncertainty. Commenting on the proposal, Digital rights group EDRi says that it will put many European companies at risk while endangering users' right to free speech. "The text that was launched today includes a proposal to potentially filter all uploads to the Internet in Europe. The draft text would destroy users' rights and legal certainty for European hosting companies," EDRi notes. The Commission, however, notes that the changes are needed to reinforce the negotiating position of copyright holders, so they can sign licensing agreements with services that provide access to user uploaded content.
I Lol'ed, did you? (Score:3)
Re:I Lol'ed, did you? (Score:5, Insightful)
The trouble is, Juncker seems to be just about crazy enough to actually follow through with this. If he does, it's probably going to create a lot of trouble for a lot of people and waste a lot of money before it ultimately fails.
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The trouble is, Juncker seems to be just about crazy enough to actually follow through with this. If he does, it's probably going to create a lot of trouble for a lot of people and waste a lot of money before it ultimately fails.
I cannot disagree.
Re: I Lol'ed, did you? (Score:3)
If only his last name was Van Damme, then he could at least ACT like his opinion on the matter wasn't purchased.
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He has very little power. He's not like the president of s country, he doesn't even get to ratify laws.
No need to panic yet, it's unlikely this will get far and there is plenty of time to stop it.
Re:I Lol'ed, did you? (Score:4, Insightful)
He has very little power.
Unfortunately, in cases like this, that's not entirely true. Commissioners, and by extension Juncker, are still where a lot of the real power in the EU lies, even if the Parliament has more power to get in the way since the Lisbon treaty. If the Commission can drive this sort of measure through via a regulation rather than a directive, it will automatically become binding in all EU member states without the national governments having to do (or ratify) anything. And as I seem to be pointing out a lot lately, the EU authorities are generally very pro-copyright at the moment, so there is no guarantee at all that the Parliament won't essentially wave through whatever the Commission proposes here.
Re: I Lol'ed, did you? (Score:3)
That's not uncommon. Here in the UK, our "unwritten" constitution (which is in fact written, just in lots of places) vests a lot of power in the Prime Minister, even though his or her powers in law at first appear very limited (it is the power to appoint and sack Ministers that defines the role). The US has its own subtleties in the balance between different branches of Government.
The EU
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In the UK's recent referendum, I voted Remain, but held my nose while I did so. I was surprised but not devastated by the result. In the short to medium term, we will undoubtedly suffer economic pain and a fall in living standards. But in the longer term, we do get to step off a conveyor belt towards post-democratic Government.
I wonder how common this view is. I suspect it's a lot more popular than the media and politicians like to acknowledge.
The problem with the way the referendum was organised is that now the government has been told we should leave but there's no good way to know what sort of terms they should seek instead. The process did not collect any information about why people voted the way they did or how strongly they felt on the different issues.
We don't know how many people who voted Leave were racist bigots, and h
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I'd agree that the moderate Remain and Leave positions get very little traction in the press compared with the extremists. I know a couple of people I work with were fairly fanatical Remain and my Dad was pretty fanatical Leave, but almost everybody else I know was basically conflicted over the whole affair. I've got good friends who voted Leave and I've certainly not fallen out with any of them over it.
The problem is that angry people make better news. If you're doing vox pops on the street for the evening
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In the UK's recent referendum, I voted Remain, but held my nose while I did so. I was surprised but not devastated by the result. In the short to medium term, we will undoubtedly suffer economic pain and a fall in living standards. But in the longer term, we do get to step off a conveyor belt towards post-democratic Government.
Eh, we have a "post-democratic" government already. The current Conservative government has an absolute majority in parliament despite the fact that roughly two-thirds of the UK electorate did not vote for them. When Conservative ministers talk about their "mandate", they are really referring to the one-third that actually voted for them, not the disenfranchised two-thirds.
And it's not an isolated case; it's the almost inevitable outcome of continuing to use "first past the post" elections in a country wi
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Except... not really.
Our voting system is one that has developed incrementally over hundreds of years. We actually voted on whether to replace it a few years ago and chose, by a large margin, to stick with what we had.
But the point is that our voting system, whatever its flaws may be (and no system is perfect; STV, AV and proportional representation can all produce flawed outputs as well), is something that can be voted on and changed by popular consent if desired. That's actually perfectly democratic.
Don't
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Except... not really. :-)
The two main parties campaigned against changing from FPTP because the status quo suits them. Even their insistence on calling it "AV" was intended to imply that in FPTP we already had the "gold standard"; so why change? Proportional representation, a system where you get parliaments that actually reflect the broad spectrum of public opinion, is anathema to the two big traditional parties; especially the Conservatives.
The Conservatives have been able to pursue policies that benefit
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Every time I read about some idiot scheme like this, I'm very tempted to write a program that will take a file and randomly (okay, for well known file types, randomly with a bit of intelligence) change a single bit in the file. Wonder if I could sell it for a buck a copy? Think I'd call it NeenerNeener.
Pretty much this. To put it at its simplest, most of the time, people want the file to be a certain way, and we can check for that. But the tiny changes are what the people who want to bypass the system want, while the people looking for purity of the file are only going to catch those stupid enough to pirate the originals.
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The ISP can sniff the packets and drop the ones it doesn't like, including the ones scrambled by an 'unauthorized' VPN. Is that really so difficult?
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You have a very dark sense of humor. Let me fix that for you so that it's clearer.
No, I didn't LOL. Why would I LOL? This is a real thing happening, and it has victims, almost all of who are totally innocent.
Why does your reply to me have a quote not made by me. Your invisible friend perhaps?
ROFLZ (Score:4, Insightful)
As much of a shitshow as the US is, I always enjoy seeing Europe flailing about in lunacy. It's what it does best. That and be at war with itself.
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As a European I sometimes experience the same feeling when it comes to US lunacy,
Then I realize there is only one big shitshow, and I cry.
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Of course America never had any civil wars (sarc). Don't you think it'd be better to be concerned because it's the exact same companies that push copyright crap in the US.
Remind me, what is the statutory damages for piracy in the US?
Wasn't it just yesterday... (Score:3)
...you were all clamoring for DNS control to leave the US...
I gleefully await the technical community reaping the bitter harvest they have sown.
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...you were all clamoring for DNS control to leave the US...
I gleefully await the technical community reaping the bitter harvest they have sown.
Then the technical community can build a replacement for DNS, with blackjack and hookers.
Stop (Score:1)
Just stop already! No other industry gets this sort of corporate welfare from governments around the world. These companies have no right to a profit and sure as fuck shouldn't be wasting tax dollars with this garbage.
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No other industry gets this sort of corporate welfare from governments around the world.
Big pharma called and told you to get off their lawn.
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Agriculture gets lots of subsidies from governments.
Fossil fuel companies have their impacts on the environment picked up by society.
Sports franchises usually get their arenas/stadiums partially or fully paid for by governments.
The military industrial complex wouldn't exist without the government.
I agree with you that they have no right to a profit and shouldn't be wasting tax dollars with this garbage but they aren't the only industry that lives off government welfare.
Copyright holders should pay a fee for this (Score:2)
I applaud the effort, but... (Score:1)
I applaud the effort, but fingerprinting doesn't work on lossy files.
The reason ContentID works at all is because people are lazy. That is it. All "Nightcore" music on Youtube, is simply sped up. "Reaction Videos"? complete video rips. People know the ways around it, and it's simply "make the quality just poor enough to not get noticed"
Now, what IS the right way of combating piracy without making it a goddamn pain in the ass? Well for one, change the actual account generation process. People just create mor
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killing anonymity..
depeering whole networks..
over copyright?
wtf?
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Now, what IS the right way of combating piracy without making it a goddamn pain in the ass?
Don't forget to attack it from the opposite end - make the content more appealing and easier to access.
It would do the industry well to eliminate every one of the following:
Until... (Score:3)
One pixel changed, two pixels change, three pixels change, it's not hard to beat a hash. Of course, you could require that they examine every single pixel in a movie file and flag those with a ~5% margin, and in the very same move destroy YouTube. Hell, you even have a new DDOS method, just upload a 99999999 hour mflagof a black screen. Once again, the copyright industry shooting itself in the foot.
I propose a minimum knowledge requirement of the internet and basic computer literacy for every politician, along with the understanding that bribes are illegal. I don't think having even just one of those would be enough to think of a law as asinine as this one...
Might want to rethink the "Brexit" (Score:3)
Ten Years in Prison for Pirates a Step Closer in the UK [slashdot.org]
How does that work, again? (Score:1)
And will it have any effect on the real world?
Given that *allegedly* BitTorrent is used for all piracy how will these uploaded user-content piracy filters work for content exchanged between peer computers? i.e.: the .torrent and .magnet links that people upload to directory servers don't contain "pirated content" they only contain block summaries and pointers to the seeding peer(s).
Factor in VPN and ISP costs (Score:2)
All the EU will scan and log is a fully encrypted network to and from nations that are still free.
This policy allows bands, NGO's, mil and police forces to do a check sum on any and all files uploaded and downloaded with quick rubber stamp cyber warrants or self granted investigative powers.
Rather than just watching ip's and trying to find the origins, creator or uploader
I for one... (Score:2)
I for one welcome our totally useless and idiotic overlawds
"Modernize Copyright Laws" (Score:1)
What they mean is "response to lobby groups and get them pesky media pirating terrorists"
warez forums (Score:1)
as long as I can buy the media online (Score:2)
Disregard everything Jean-Claude Juncker says (Score:2)
Not someone whose opinion is worth anything.
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A tax-cheat alcoholic?
Sounds like just the sort a corrupt industry wants in power because he's easily blackmailed/bribed.
Strat
Re: Disregard everything Jean-Claude Juncker says (Score:2)
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