DMCA clones swept Europe last week

[wessman]

DMCA-Alikes Sweep Europe
from the heavy-linkage-send-help dept.
posted by timothy on Monday July 14, @02:56 (software)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/14/0229253

D4C5CE writes "The number of [0]European countries enacting their ignorance of the sad experiences from [1]Four Years under the DMCA has just risen to 5, as the Upper House ([2]Bundesrat, incidentally) of the German Parliament on Friday [3]failed to veto (sorry, some press releases are only available in heavily spin-doctored German Legalese at this point in time) and is hence [4]considered to have consented to the [5]adoption by the Lower House ([6]Bundestag) of a [7]federal law implementing the dreaded DMCA's European sibling known as [8]EU Copyright Directive [9]2001/29/EC." Read on for more on the copyright laws being considered around the EU.

D4C5CE continues: "Earlier implementations have been reported from Austria, Denmark, Greece and Italy.
Legal scholars consider the directive itself an invalid "monstrosity", and the German law unconstitutional. In fact, this legislation is viewed as so terribly awful that even from the U.S., the EFF tried to prevent it in a rare intervention overseas.

Declaring that the circumvention rather than the use of Copy Protection is a Crime, the German parliament threatens to make things even worse by adopting a "second stage" with further steps to impose DRM and additional levies later this year, but unsurprisingly, all of the issues that DMCA-style laws have become notorious for are already there: Overbreadth, overprotection of technical measures, and Chilling Effects aplenty.

Record companies eagerly awaiting this "lex Bertelsmann" have already caused ISPs to send out warning letters to P2P users for alleged copyright infringement, and are expected to take legal action against individual users of file-sharing networks, following in the footsteps of RIAA.


Confirming the fears expressed by Alan Cox on Slashdot, computer gurus will soon find no place left to go even on the European side of the pond, and the Free-X "Independence Day" XBox exploit posted by one brave German just in time before this dismal day may well have been one of the very last legal disclosures in this part of the world as well."

Links:
0. http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/EUCD-Status
1. http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20030102_...sequences.html
2. http://www.bundesrat.de/Englisch/aktuell/TO-sitz.html
3. http://www.bundesrat.de/pr/pr126_03.html
4. http://eng.bundesregierung.de/dokume..._.htm?script=0
5. http://www.fr-aktuell.de/ressorts/wi...rk/?cnt=243808
6. http://www.bundestag.de/mdb15/wkmap/index.html
7. http://privatkopie.net/files/pk_english.htm
8. http://www.eucd.org/issues/eucd/
9. http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CELEXnumdoc&lg=EN&numdoc=32001L0029 &model=guichett

© 1997-2003 OSDN.

[jj_frap]

Europe is fucking mess right now. Not too long ago, Sweden sent in a goddamn riot squad to stop a store from selling imported DVDs.

Jesus Christ, can't you have your secularism, your same-sex marriage, your progressive taxation -- all good things -- without whoring to the fucking Big Entertainment. It's not hard.

[Induna]

Europe has, and always will be fragmented. The EU is a facade. Somebody in Denmark for example, couldn't care less what goes on in Spain. And visa versa. So it's hardly surprising shit like this can get passed through parliament without anybody noticing, or realising what the hell happened..

[Darth Vulcanus]

The European Union is a socialist UN whore. No fair laws will ever pass there.

[MiX1082]

Well at least we don't have the Sonny Bono copyright extension act...

[jj_frap]

Might I add that Bono's a right-winger?