* graduated response: The report recommends "three strikes" schemes against unauthorised file sharing for all Europe, including cooperation with ISP based on denunciations by the entertainment industries (points 31, 37)
* Internet content filtering: The recommendations ask for the deployment of technologies for filtering content "for identification and recognition, [...] with a view to distinguishing more easily between legal and pirated products" that totally contradicts the very nature of Internet. (point 35)
* Internet access providers liability: the report "Invites reflection on the responsibility of internet access providers in the fight against piracy;" including the objective of making service providers liable for content published by their users. (points 32, 36, 37)
* Denial of copyright exceptions: its conclusions on copyright exceptions are anticipating the result of the public consultation launched by the European Commission on "Copyright in the knowledge economy" by stating that any reform of the 2001 copyright Directive is undesirable, that the existing regime for copyright exceptions is undesirable, and that there is no need for new exceptions. This archaic position undermines creativity, interoperability, and innovation. (points 3, 20, 23, 25)
This is massively retrogressive, and takes no account of everything that has happened online for the last ten years.
Please write to your MEPs now, asking them to reject the Medina report when it comes up for a vote. I know from personal experience how effective this is.
These proposals are a disaster for all computer users and modern life in general.
ReplyDelete"Tail, we're aiming to protect using legislation your right to wag the dog". This is an attempt to ensure that a select few can "right-click" their way to riches without ever leaving their swivel chairs. The copyright-based "information economy" is a fantasy. There's no such such thing - at least not without threatening and imposing oppressive measures on the majority of members of society. Back to plumbing and van driving for the lot of 'em; certainly we'd all be better off. Useless so and sos.
Digital technology was supposed to bring unprecedented freedom and opportunity, not a taxation on culture and the threat of jail for those being creative with the information out there on The Network and in society in general.
This committee is profoundly ignorant and reactionary. As hyperbolic as this no doubt sounds, IMO they are a brake on cultural advancement. Their restrictions are a form of creative and cultural tyranny, They don't get the Internet, they don't get creativity, they don't understand the value of free data, they don't understand the nature of digital society and software. These people are ignorant Luddites wedded to unsustainable and out-moded business practices.
Sigh. The 21st Century was supposed to bring advancement, not a retreat into protectionism and ignorance. I wonder how many of the people on this committee have ever written a line of code, have ever done anything more technical than click a "Submit" button, have ever used their computers for anything truly innovative and creative -- or conversely, simply used a screenshot from a Disney movie for some trivial purpose? Trivial purpose? No such thing! Hand over the readies - or the SWAT team will be kicking down the door to your home any minute now.
Grrrr... useless wkanres, the lot of them! (I never could spell...)
</rant>
Yes, it's so amazingly retrogressive...
ReplyDelete(Nice-looking rant you've got there, squire.)