Support NeoGAF

[Funky Papa]

Newsflash: Oettinger continues to be a right cunt.

Without much fanfare, the EC has finally laid a comprehensive reform of the EU's copyright rules. This is probably going to turn into a complete mess, as the proposal is nothing but a love letter to old media conglomerates signed by Commissioner Oettinger, who has absolutely no business being anywhere close to a computer, copyright laws or just plain policy making.

Unsurprisingly, most mainstream outlets are being purposefully obtuse, making hard to understand what this is about and why the news are so damn hated by start-ups and smaller outlets. The Financial Times has published a rather aseptic article under the title "Old media hopes to benefit from new EU copyright rules", while The Guardian has made a mockery of journalism with its piece, "New EU copyright rules could boost media groups". You need to look for the proposal's critics in order to get a fuller picture of the situation. As per usual, Julia Reda (rapporteur of the Parliament's review of 2001's Copyright Directive) has done a bang up jub summarising the issue while calling out Oettinger for being a corporate puppet.

Commissioner Oettinger is about to turn EU copyright reform into another ACTA

Oettinger’s insistence that end users sharing links will not be affected is an attempt at misdirection. Links posted to social networks today automatically include a snippet from the linked article, which the proposal would undeniably make subject to licensing for 20 years after publication. No exception is provided for individuals. Accordingly, this proposal would make posting a link to an article from 1996 to Facebook illegal without a licence.

Remember the universally mocked Google tax enacted by Spain? Oettinger and his minions want it to be Eurowide. Axel Springer demands it. On steroids.

Even worse, Oettinger is not just trying to extend a failed idea to all of the EU – he’s proposing to extend its scope even further: The new copyright would force not only news aggregators to pay when they show excerpts of information from news sites, but also any other web service that comes in contact with online news like social networks and search engines. Germany decided that such extra copyright on news content (which loses its commercial value within days) should last for one year – but now Oettinger is planning to extend it to 10 years, and even lists up to 50 as an option!

Do you enjoy streaming music from the internet? Too bad.

Service providers like YouTube currently have the obligation to act on reports of copyright infringement. Oettinger is looking to turn this principle on its head and legally force them to proactively negotiate with the music industry to acquire licenses for (or reach other agreements on) anything their users upload, as well as to build systems that continuously monitor uploads and scan for copyrighted content.

Here, the music industry did not get all they wanted: Originally, they demanded that YouTube should be directly liable for anything their millions of users upload. That would have given the industry an excellent bargaining position to demand more money – but the Commission rejected the idea.

That leaves us with a great irony: YouTube, the target of these actions, has already been voluntarily implementing these ideas for years. So the Commission’s response to complaints about YouTube is… to force all providers to act like YouTube.

Fuck.

So what about geoblocking and the freedom to enjoy multimedia content across the EU? That was in the cards, right? Well, fuck you too.

At the behest of the film industry, Oettinger has given up plans to abolish geoblocking. He is refusing to propose the action that would reduce geoblocking significantly overnight: Stopping forcing video services to turn away customers from the “wrong” EU country. Industry contracts will continue to force services to discriminate between Europeans and turn away paying customers – artificially limiting the audience of VoD services and European films and cementing the dominance of Netflix.

And of course, there's more.

Meanwhile...

Fuck you too, buddy.

There's already a campaign against the proposal, which is expected to become a much fiercer battle than the fight for net neutrality ever was. On the plus side, this still has to go through the Parliament (which is not amenable to the idea and hosts a hardcore group of detractors) and the council of ministers, and you can count with European start-ups raising a massive stink across the Union. On the negative side, many politicians across Europe will bend over backwards to curry the favour of powerful media groups, so expect this to become a very nasty, very politicised issue over the following months, specially with Google facing some extra scrutiny and some actors interesting in conflating both issues as if they were the same.

 

[jWILL253]

What is it with Western countries and draconian copyright laws?

 

[Aiii]

What is it with Western countries and draconian copyright laws?

Kapitalism.

The people are just there to make the big companies and their investors money. That is our purpose.

 

[LordCiego]

What is it with Western countries and draconian copyright laws?

 

[KonradLaw]

What's the point of this? Every website will simply not post links and be done with it, unless a source gives up their fees. This will make traffic to most of the source sites collapse, thus forcing them to wave the fee.
The only result of this will be mess for some time and then return to current status quo effectively.

 

[FyreWulff]

I remember people wanting to be able to deny/charge for links back in the 90s. That stupid idea is still going around.

 

[YoungFa]

What a bitchfaced cunt.

 

[d00d3n]

This is incredibly bad. Fuck Oettinger and the copyright industries that want their "creativity encouraged" by destroying the internet.

 

[Krejlooc]

Service providers like YouTube currently have the obligation to act on reports of copyright infringement. Oettinger is looking to turn this principle on its head and legally force them to proactively negotiate with the music industry to acquire licenses for (or reach other agreements on) anything their users upload, as well as to build systems that continuously monitor uploads and scan for copyrighted content.

Well might as well legally force their developers to grow wings and fly while they are at it. How can an adult believe something like this is even feasible?

 

[Doikor]

This is a quite draconian set of laws. Though I doubt it will pass through the European Parliament and the council of ministers in its current form. But yeah I think its time again to start spamming my MEP again.

 

[Zaph]

Not usually one to defend Google (they've done a lot of shit), but the News Snippets tax seems insane to me. I can't count the amount of sites I've discovered and revisited thanks to the News tab in search results.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

this is so fucking stupid

 

[Darrenf]

Absolutely fucking ridiculous. No way this passes.

 

[ShadowOwl]

When Günther Oettinger was appointed as European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society in 2014 people were already very alarmed.
Two years later you have to come to the conclusion that it pretty much can't get any worse than Oettinger. Digital Economy and Society. Society my ass. He's as pro industry as you can be. You could appoint any lobbyist in his place and it still wouldn't get worse.

Btw, "link tax" already is a fail in Germany and it's a total fail. Nobody does want to keep it at this point.

 

[Irminsul]

Fun anecdote regarding the German version of that "link tax", which already exists:

Google isn't paying anything. Because news publishers know Google would just exclude any of them who would actually want money, and they get quite a lot of their hits from Google. So they just granted Google a "temporary no-fee licence", which of course will never change.

Everyone but Google does have to pay, of course, which just means further supporting the monopoly Google already has. Without getting really that much out of it, if anything.

 

[oti]

Fuck you Oettinger. Can't we do something about him? Vote him out?

 

[Binabik15]

The guy is a mess. On behalf of Baden-Württemberg, I'm deeply sorry. I always voted against him, but that only led to a cozy EU exile where he got even more power.

 

[Moosichu]

Done my bit sharing it on social media

 

[Nikodemos]

He was an industry shill when heading the Energy Commission as well.

 

[Dascu]

Fuck you Oettinger. Can't we do something about him? Vote him out?

Contact MEPs in the Parliament's JURI committee. They will need to amend, vote and approve this file. They could completely delete all the provisions if they so please.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/juri/members.html

 

[Des0lar]

Öttinger is a bloody mess. I nearly had the chance to see him speak here at an event and ask questions, but I couldn't go. Would have loved to see him squirm out of these issues.

 

[Zaru]

The European commission is way too often acting like an undemocratic hive of villainy.
Sure we have the Parliament as a last line of defense but the countries don't exactly tend to send their best and brightest there either.

 

[Gallbaro]

Remember when the granted monopoly was 20 years?

Spoiler

I don't either

 

[YoungFa]

The European commission is way too often acting like an undemocratic hive of villainy.
Sure we have the Parliament as a last line of defense but the countries don't exactly tend to send their best and brightest there either.

Its where failed politicians go.

 

[CyclopsRock]

Fuck you Oettinger. Can't we do something about him? Vote him out?

Where are you from? Take the first two or three letters of your country's name and then add "xit" to the end of it.

 

[Nicktendo86]

Fuck you Oettinger. Can't we do something about him? Vote him out?

hahahahahahahaha

Alt answer, look at post above.

 

[Joni]

Where are you from? Take the first two or three letters of your country's name and then add "xit" to the end of it.

He is from Germany. I can see a problem.

 

[CyclopsRock]

He is from Germany. I can see a problem.

Yeah, me too; The word just doesn't sound right. Is it "Gerxit"? "Gexit?" "Deuxit"?

 

[Melon Husk]

What's the point of this? Every website will simply not post links and be done with it, unless a source gives up their fees. This will make traffic to most of the source sites collapse, thus forcing them to wave the fee.
The only result of this will be mess for some time and then return to current status quo effectively.

|
|
v​

Fun anecdote regarding the German version of that "link tax", which already exists:

Google isn't paying anything. Because news publishers know Google would just exclude any of them who would actually want money, and they get quite a lot of their hits from Google. So they just granted Google a "temporary no-fee licence", which of course will never change.

Everyone but Google does have to pay, of course, which just means further supporting the monopoly Google already has. Without getting really that much out of it, if anything.

Yup. This will kill lesser news aggregator sites and everything would be then relayed through that monopoly site.

 

[Nicktendo86]

In other EU news..

The European Parliament has indefinitely postponed a vote on an initiative that was meant to bring clarity to MEPs’ side activities and rein in lobbyists. But no one wants to shoulder the blame. EurActiv Germany reports.

Attempts to bring lobbyists to heel surprisingly ground to a halt Tuesday night (13 September). The EPP, S&D group and ALDE all agreed to suspend, indefinitely, a vote in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) that would have centred on a report produced by MEP Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA). The report proposed serious changes to the way lobbyists interact with Brussels lawmakers and to what extent officials can engage in side activities.

Giegold added that internal sources had informed him that group leaders Manfred Weber (EPP), Gianni Pittella (S&D) and Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE) had all come to a consensus on indefinitely postponing the vote.

The report had called for more stringent transparency standards to be established at EU level and for the influence of lobbyists on Brussels policy to be heavily restricted.

One of the flagship proposals of Giegold’s report was the introduction of a so-called legislative footprint and a three-year limit on MEPs switching to lobby groups once their term in office expired. The legislative footprint would detail how much contact lobby groups have on policy and to what extent legislation has been affected by stakeholders.

Negotiating positions and mandates would also have to be published online before each round of negotiations, so the public could monitor the progress of deals like the much-maligned TTIP talks.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/pu...-parliament-quietly-scuppers-lobbying-reform/

 

[Sulik2]

What is it with Western countries and draconian copyright laws?

Corporate donors have heavy influence on law making in the west. Draconian copyright benefits corps, so their monetary influence pushes heavily for it.

 

[Easy_D]

#DigitalSingleMarket


Geoblocking is still a thing. Uh-huh.

 

[Melon Husk]

#DigitalSingleMarket


Geoblocking is still a thing. Uh-huh.

He is literally saying one thing and doing the opposite. At least he's blatantly transparent about that.

 

[WorriedCitizen]

What sense does this even make? Old media is dying at a rapid pace already. This will just turn even more people to get their news from alternative news media and things like conspiracy blogs etc, all of which have a strong anti-EU bias.

 

[Nikodemos]

#DigitalSingleMarket


Geoblocking is still a thing. Uh-huh.

Can't a challenge be brought to the ECJ that geoblocking violates the single market principle?

 

[andythinkpad]

Can the European news outlets relocate to UK?

Isn't Geoblocking basically the blackout rule. I really really hate blackout rule, I think that's the reason I don't watch any sports not even local ones, and the reason youth don't watch Olympic anymore.

 

[Irminsul]

Yup. This will kill lesser news aggregator sites and everything would be then relayed through that monopoly site.

Well, that's effect of the law. As to its intentions, I honestly don't know. Maybe the news publishers think Google would pay if it's a Europe-wide law? Although news are pretty nation-centric, so I'm not quite sure that'll work.

 

[Royal_Phalanx]

Even though I support the EU as a whole, things like this show that it's far from perfect. The Commission really needs to become more accountable. Again a government shows it doesn't understand the internet or what consumers want.

 

[M3d10n]

How is it possible they cannot see this "link tax" will backfire in a disastrous way? Google/Facebook/etc will simply drop linking to news sites that don't waiver the fees or sign some kind of partnership. Google will either sign a deal with a handful of news outlets or outright create their own and drop everyone else from their results, killing traffic.

 

[Fiend]

In other EU news..



https://www.euractiv.com/section/pu...-parliament-quietly-scuppers-lobbying-reform/

Would be too good to be true, if this would have gotten through.

 

[Dascu]

My two cents:

As with all cases, be a bit careful of exaggerated interpretations. This proposal will not lead to the death of the Internet as we know it. But it is indeed an unfortunate combination of a curious Court of Justice ruling (GS Media from last week) and a new legislative copyright proposal (from yesterday) which would expand certain news publishers rights. Combining the two could lead to a lot of insecurity about whether or not you could be 'sued' for posting a link to content which later turns out to be have been uploaded there without the rightholders' consent.

This is assuming that everything goes through exactly like that and that the companies involved also enforce it very actively.

The proposal is already getting a ton of backlash, from all sides of the spectrum (Parliament, tech industry, NGOs, etc.). I doubt it will make it through the legislative process unscathed. 'Luckily' it is not an industry vs consumer debate; it's one particular sector of the industry that would stand to benefit with many other powerful sectors being very upset.

Further, Funky Papa: There was fanfare. Everyone in Brussels in the IP/tech world has been waiting for these proposals and it was presented by Juncker during his State of the Union speech yesterday.



In other news, the Commission also launched some proposals yesterday about telecommunications infrastructure and 5G deployment, which everyone is pretty happy about.

 

[trembli0s]

Fun anecdote regarding the German version of that "link tax", which already exists:

Google isn't paying anything. Because news publishers know Google would just exclude any of them who would actually want money, and they get quite a lot of their hits from Google. So they just granted Google a "temporary no-fee licence", which of course will never change.

Everyone but Google does have to pay, of course, which just means further supporting the monopoly Google already has. Without getting really that much out of it, if anything.

That seems to be the irony of increased and convoluted regulations which aren't well-thought out.

In practice, giant corporations with compliance departments are in the perfect spot to either comply or ignore the regs while smaller, leaner start-ups get starved out.

 

[KonradLaw]

How is it possible they cannot see this "link tax" will backfire in a disastrous way? Google/Facebook/etc will simply drop linking to news sites that don't waiver the fees or sign some kind of partnership. Google will either sign a deal with a handful of news outlets or outright create their own and drop everyone else from their results, killing traffic.

To be honest..EU is very public with it's law making and if enough people/organisations tells it that something is dumb it will get dropped almost every time. Hopefully this will be the case here.

 

[Funky Papa]

Further, Funky Papa: There was fanfare. Everyone in Brussels in the IP/tech world has been waiting for these proposals and it was presented by Juncker during his State of the Union speech yesterday.

Yeah, I meant from the press. Basically most large outlets are either ignoring the news or beating around the bush, like The Guardian. Nobody is paying attention to the ugly parts of the proposal, focusing instead on the whole free municipal wi-fi and 5G things (which are nice). At least everybody but old media conglomerates hate the most contentious parts of it, so I'm guessing it's going to be greatly reworked, not unlike the net neutrality proposal. Concerned citizens need to put some pressure, though.

The guy is a mess. On behalf of Baden-Württemberg, I'm deeply sorry. I always voted against him, but that only led to a cozy EU exile where he got even more power.

I feel like this is a problematic issue. While there are lots of fantastic people doing great work, both the EC and the EP seem to be a bit of a golden exile or an elephants' graveyard depending on who you ask; the place where unsuccessful or problematic politicians (or those who are owed a big favour) are sent so they continue to work for the party without the scrutiny from national media. Best case scenario, they remain lazy and unproductive. Worst one, you get an Oettinger or a Pilar del Castillo.