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Trigger
Just read EU UND URHEBERRECHT : Ein guter Tag (roughly EU and copyrights: A blessed day). Today (9/12/2018), the EU Parliament voted by a large majority (438 yes to 226 no votes) to apply controversial, legacy copyrights to the Internet.
The journalist, who wrote this article for a leading German news media outlet, is in full praise of this measure. As so often, journalists are not the brightest, but they think they are.
Here is another, more critical article: EU Parliament just voted on controversial Copyright Reform — the outlook is grim
To quote (emphasis added; disclosure: I did not ask for permission to quote from this article):
- “... Article 11 (a.k.a. link tax) will force anyone using snippets of journalistic online content to get a license from the publisher first — essentially outlawing current business models of most aggregators and news apps. This can also possibly threaten the hyperlink and give power to publishers at the cost of public good.”
- “On the other hand, Article 13 (a.k.a. censorship machines) will make platforms responsible for monitoring user behavior to stop copyright infringements, but basically means only huge platforms will have the resources to let users comment or share content; there’s a worry that this could lead to broader censorship, with free speech vehicles — like parody, satire, or even protest videos — potentially untenable under this system”
A Massive Anachronism
Caveat: I have not followed this momentous development in much detail. Pardon my ignorance
- European politicians have again demonstrated that they think or pretend that Europe is still the navel of the world (axis mundi). An arrogance unbecoming
- European politicians demonstrated their huge ignorance of the digital age by applying outdated copyright laws to the Internet instead of reforming or adopting the outdated, legacy copyrights (which are extremely excessive, I blogged about it several times, e.g. here)
- This law may also be an expression of dim witted European animus towards large social media corporations or the dominance of U.S. corporations, which they appear to loath
- It is perhaps another acknowledgment of continued European decline and irrelevance on the world stage
- Among other things, I understand this new law would hold e.g. social media companies responsible for users’ who violated copyrights.
- For hundreds of years, copyright laws were used by governments to control information and to stymie human progress and the exchange of ideas. Copyrights are extremely one sided and stacked in favor of publishers and authors against consumers or the public at large
- It would be an irony or a so called (expected) unintended consequence if this law does not in effect promote or strengthen the position of large Internet companies at the expense of smaller rivals
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