UN European Union Copyright Directive Megathread - The greatest disaster of 2018

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http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/eu-wants-ban-memes-internet-spread-humour-joy-3483221

The European Union is trying to ban online memes under new digital copyright laws, which might be the first justifiable reason to actually go through with Brexit.

The proposed Copyright Directive, which will be put to a vote in the European Parliament on June 20, could see restrictions on remixes and other user-generated content.

If passed, Article 13 of the Directive will push online platform providers to “take measures to ensure the functioning of agreements concluded with rights-holders for the use of their works.”

That means popular memes inspired by copyrighted images, such as the timeless “One Does Not Simply…” from Lord of the Rings, could be deleted from the web under a “Robo-copyright regime” according to campaigners.

Those demanding Article 13 be struck down say it will “destroy the internet as we know it” and lead to bots censoring and deleting online content with no understanding of the context.

It means the likes of Facebook or Twitter could simply scan a single version of an image, video or song and simply drop the block hammer on anything that somewhat duplicates that piece of media. So, the parodies that often tickle us on lunch breaks or during the morning commute could be removed too.

Executive director Kim Killock told the BBC: “Unfortunately, while machines can spot duplicate uploads of Beyonce songs, they can’t spot parodies, understand memes that use copyright images, or make any kind of cultural judgement about what creative people are doing. We see this all too often on YouTube already.

“Add to that, the EU wants to apply the Robocop approach to extremism, hate speech, and anything else they think can get away with, once they put it in place for copyright. This would be disastrous.”


There’s currently an online campaignencouraging meme fans to email, call or tweet their MEP to have the plans struck down. They Save Your Internet campaign says Article 13 also threatens gamers who live stream, blogging platforms, discussion forums and more.

Would you leave the EU to save the humble meme? Or will Britain’s draconian ways eliminate the celebrated craze anyway?
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https://news.sky.com/story/memes-will-be-banned-under-new-eu-copyright-law-warn-campaigners-11398577
A new copyright law from the European Union would lead to the banning of memes on the internet, campaigners are warning.

The EU Copyright Directive intends to protect the intellectual property rights of people who upload their material to the internet.

However, campaigners are warning the law will require "all content uploaded to the internet to be monitored and potentially deleted if a likeness to existing copyright is protected".

The campaign against a particular provision of the directive, Article 13, warns that online platforms would be economically damaged if they were forced to comply with its expensive obligations.

The law would "destroy the internet as we know it" warn the campaigners, who add it would "allow big companies to control what we see and do online".

Essentially, the campaigners are arguing the stringent copyright protections of Article 13 would damage the sharing of parody content and memes which, while themselves being original and creative works, are often developed from other people's original content.

Memes including image macros - such as the stock photograph of a distracted boyfriend taken by photographer Antonio Guillem - are often shared without the approval of the copyright holder.

The campaign follows an open letter sent by academics from intellectual property research centres in Europe regarding the copyright directive.

The allegations have been robustly rejected by the European Commission.

Introducing the legislative drive in 2016, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said he wanted "journalists, publishers and authors to be paid fairly for their work".

The copyright protections would apply to that work "whether it is made in studios or living rooms, whether it is disseminated offline or online, whether it is published via a copying machine or commercially hyperlinked on the web."

In response to the campaign, a European Commission spokesperson told Sky News: "The idea behind our copyright proposals is that people should be able to make a living from their creative ideas.

"The proposals to modernise EU copyright provisions will not harm freedom of expression on the internet.

"They take into account technological developments that have already been introduced by some of the major players and which help in two ways.

"Firstly, they help to inform authors when their works are used online and to prevent that these works are used by major online platforms without their author's consent.

"Secondly, such technological developments help to ensure the author's fair remuneration for their work."
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It's finally happening. Hopefully Meme Magic will save Eurokiwis.
 
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Begun, the meme wars have.

This is both infinitely hilarious and horrifying because This is what people have been trying to do for fucking ever with parodies and shit. There's been some countries where parodies sometimes get banned from airing via lawsuits filed by rival companies for years now. This is just the next logical step of that shit combined with the faulty dream that is automated moderation.
 
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This is what happens when you repeatedly elect politicians who are 2 years away from dementia and losing control of their bowels.

Not only is this completely impractical and totally unenforceable it just means that if it ever met with any slight success people would just make memes of the memes themselves.

Whatever people put this plan together have no understanding of technology which makes it even funnier if it ever becomes law.

It won't work and if it does work you'll just push web content on increasingly lawless platforms (anyone remember thepiratebay getting blocked?)
 
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F for the EU

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neger psykolog said:
This is what happens when you repeatedly elect politicians who are 2 years away from dementia and losing control of their bowels.

Not only is this completely impractical and totally unenforceable it just means that if it ever met with any slight success people would just make memes of the memes themselves.

Whatever people put this plan together have no understanding of technology which makes it even funnier if it ever becomes law.

It won't work and if it does work you'll just push web content on increasingly lawless platforms (anyone remember thepiratebay getting blocked?)
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Its adorable that you think anybody “elects” the EU bureaucrats.

They answer to noone but their own pocketbooks, which means this will pass with a huge margin as every media group pours money into their eager hands.
 
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If it passes would google images have to be shut down? I mean just googling any meme brings up hundreds if not thousands of memes. Think of all the websites that revised their code over the last thing the EU instituted, and imagine all of them installing bots the way youtube has for videos to crawl through and delete any copywrited image.

Hell, imagine grandma’s vacation photos of Disneyland being deleted because it looks like a copywrited promo image.
 
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