For years, we have taken the freedoms of the internet for granted - watching the latest movie before it hits cinemas or downloading our favourite music or books. If you live in Europe, it is unlikely that you either paid for these experiences or worried unduly about the legality of them. From the end of this month, however, new European copyright laws will limit your access to some online material and make downloading or copying certain things - even if they are solely for your personal use - a criminal offence.

The Orwellian-sounding European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) is designed to update copyright protection for the internet age and harmonise laws across Europe. Its wording is long and complex, but the thrust of its main proposals is simple: devices that allow you to play legitimately acquired, but copy-protected, CDs or DVDs on your PC will be illegal, and file sharers could face an unlimited fine or a jail term of up to two years.

Complete story.

wonder how long until the revolt starts over there

why is the public over there allowing this?

It's all about crappy copy protection. The most recent one could have been broken by a monkey.

So, instead of raising the barrier to define "copy protection" as tested methods that cannot be cracked (as soon as someone comes up with one), we punish the public and recoup the research funds wasted on bad technology by suing the consumers that buy a product and foolishly expect to be able to use it like they owned it or something.

Consider Europe a "test market" to see how it goes before it's introduced in the US.......

the public over there may not. it's just starting. If file sharing is so popular over there, they won't sit still long or stand being thrown in jail

"but the thrust of its main proposals is simple: devices that allow you to play legitimately acquired, but copy-protected, CDs or DVDs on your PC will be illegal" Does this mean there will be no CD-roms or DVD-roms allowed in any PC. Or did I read it Wrong?

they paid them off again they get all these laws in other countries enacted then they have the U. S. join that org to get around our own laws. then they get there lackeys to enact tougher law that the org. had in the first place.

Agree with you Zippy. I'm sure the RIAA and Congress will be watching this one VERY closely.

My god! Anyone care to start a new country where common sense and freedom are a good thing?

We do need to start a new country with common sense and freedom!!! The citizens of the U.S. and Europe should stand up and revolt!!!!!!

Hey erc1452...sounds good to me. Amerika has gone down the tubes.

So in order to prevent "piracy" they are going to stifle advancements in technology. Brilliant move a$$holes. Talk about putting people out of jobs!

"Consider Europe a "test market" to see how it goes before it's introduced in the US"

Too late, it's already been passed. It's called the DMCA.

"The citizens of the U.S. and Europe should stand up and revolt!"

Or stop shucking their responsibilities to be actively engaged in the political process. Remember, VOTING

As I was going to say, VOTING is the last line of defense for a republic's citizens; getting involved with your state and federal politicians on a weekly basis is the first line of defense.

BTW, the EUCD was specifically modeled after the U.S. DMCA. To learn more, check out my friend Jim's site at http://www.ukcdr.org

hehehe, us Europeans have a long history of turning around and telling those that wish to control us to go take a hike!


Bring it on!

They love to riot over there! Should make for some great video images.

If they try to pull this kind of crap over here, I will be trading in the baseball bat sitting next to my computer for a 12-gauge.

In a way, this development in Europe is not exactly a surprise. Not just with the E.U. either; British Prime Minister Tony Blair, I.I.N.M., has for the past few years pushed to end British national sovereignty just like that, without even remotely consulting the public or asking for their vote on that issue. His attitude, from what I've heard and read, is "well, this is much too important a decision to leave with the little guy" or something like that. Or to put it another way, uber-elitist.

Well, the f**ker may have a bit of a surprise coming to him. Blair even agreed to forefiet our veto in any EU legislation.

Does anyone know the approximate numbers of filesharers over here? I'd like to give him the facts, like many of you have done with your senators.

Some time back, I was asserting that I felt that all this crap was headed toward criminalization of peer to peer users, and locking them up. I talked about this again in my article on the FTAA, that, at first I said they may give file traders two years in prison, but as I read it more in depth, there seems like an open ended recommendation, which points to making an example of the ones they go after and giving enough prison time to act as a "deterrent".

Similar drives toward criminalization are found in the effort George features. Thi is from the article :
""The main problem with the directive is that it goes further with copyright than copyright has ever gone before," says Ian Brown, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research. He argues that the implementation of the EUCD will do nothing to protect consumers, researchers and business competition, while adopting a heavy-handed approach to the criminalisation of copyright circumvention. "Copyright had always focused on people infringing rights and making copies. This goes further and says that any kind of technology that can help you do that is now illegal. "

Thanks to George for a great thread!
~Code

well, i just want to say a few things

1. i live in england (best country in the world, instead of telling you what you can do, they tell you what you cant do but even that is open for discussion)
2. if the RIAA try to hack my machine i will personally take explosives to the headquarters and demand an opology (i can get C4 my uncle used to be a bomb disposal expert)
3. we in england wont stand for being jailed for copyright breach. i personally would fight to the death before accepting jail time.
4. i urge the competent crackers and hackers among you to hack the riaa servers and delete them and furthermore encrypting their interfaces forcing them to accuire new hardware and letting them know who's boss
5. i (cash flow willing) am going to run for government in ENGLAND (turns out its only £20,000 for a local election and £500,000 for national election) and i will make my policies aimed at giving more rights to people (along with some other stuff)
6. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA sorry, i just needed to vent my frustration at the damage the RIAA and other large organisations are doing to society
7. THERE IS NO SEVEN

thank you for your time

I live in Italy and I keep sharing and downloading..there are more problems here as sueing filesharers...

no matter where you go there you are....same problems no matter what country you reside in.... obviously idiocy knows no borders be they geographical or cultural

Damn righy...Hope the copyright holders will die......

The public in Europe allow this because they dont know. I have *never* seen the EUCD mentioned off the internet, and even online its only on geek or music sites such as this one. People cant protest if they dont know whats happening. This is how the DMCA was passed. Did a single person here know of the DMCA before it was passed?

I have no objection to being elitest when the rest of the population are uneducated, uninterested and unmotivated slobs. Democratic voteing only works when the masses deserve to vote.