Another translation by yours truly for the A&N audience. Source [A]
Update: 2024-11-12: Added another translation. Original source [A]
Readers pointed out this blog article to me: The end of the printed book comes closer - thanks to EU regulations
Soon, everybody who wants to publish a book needs to prove exactly in what time and place the trees that the paper was made from were grown, and that they're coming from a guaranteed deforestation-free farming.
At first I thought it was satire, a hoax. A mockery of the supply chain law.
But no, the [German] Federal Office for Agriculture and Food elaborates:
Now I hope that this gets blocked on YouTube when I link to it:
[Preservetube]
I guess this falls under bureaucracy pornography.
I don't know what that's supposed to look like, but everything you buy that's made out of wood now has to tell you exactly when and where it's been produced deforestation-free? And who wants to check whether that's true, and how?
Recently they took our plastic forks and drinking straws. I guess the wooden forks and paper straws are next. Basically you can't even use chopsticks at the Asian restaurants any longer.
Of course the point is that this is unenforceable in practice. Because how is a publisher supposed to print that in their books? At the time of the manuscript, they don't know yet where the book is printed and where the printing company is getting their paper from. Or do they leave a blank field in which the printing company prints in the certification?
Of course this is going to be another nail in the coffin of book and newspaper printing.
Which amuses me in some way, because the administrative court of Berlin stubbornly sticks to the interpretation that "press" is exclusively what is printed and distributed on a substrate - paper, but in the legal sense also a CDROM.
But the reality will be that we will only get digital newspapers, magazines, and books, and not as a download, but as a kind of subscription, access right, to access them using a phone, ebook reader, tablet. And the rule that, what you put in circulation remains in circulation, no longer holds. If, for example, you legally prohibit a book, only the sale of it gets prohibited and the existing stock gets destroyed, but the copies that were already sold won't get collected.
And as far as I know the German lawyers, it's guaranteed they'll try to censor digital books and newspapers in the same way they do social media, and then they get to enforce that passages from already-sold ebooks get deleted or changed, which will be possible. Then the books and newspapers which you have already bought get censored.
And because publishers and book companies are infamous for getting more left-wing and corrupt, it's also predictable that books get retroactively inserted with gendered language and queerness.
In that respect as well, we achieved Orwell's 1984, in which it's already been described that newspapers and books get retroactively changed and adjusted to the political situation.
Deforestation-free greetings!
PS: Damn, I didn't even think of that one. But a reader gave the fitting comment:
Fits like a glove.
A reader points at this article: The book is an endangered good - new declaration obligation in the EU
Apparently, there is a new hazardous material regulation according to which every product must declare who has put it into circulation.
Is this satire?
Actually, it's too stupid to be satire. This is so stupid that it has to be real.
But I'm thinking of something else. And apparently I'm not the only one who does:
I have written quite often that the intelligence agencies are currently working on a total opinion cartography, storing information on every citizen, what their political beliefs are, to put the people on black- and whitelists.
That way, you don't even need to bother looking at the content, open up the book or get it out of the shrink wrap, but you can immediately see where the person who put it in circulation stands politically and then sort it out, into the trash it goes.
Officially, it is obviously just about "deforestation-free" books.
The trend is going towards the electronic book, and that is subject to constant changes and metamorphosis.
Shamed be he who thinks evil of it.
Update: 2024-11-12: Added another translation. Original source [A]
The end of the printed book: The EU wants "deforestation-free products"
It keeps on getting more insidious.Readers pointed out this blog article to me: The end of the printed book comes closer - thanks to EU regulations
Digital burning stakes for undesirable facts and thoughts are only fully effective when there exists no physically tangible evidence anymore. This is why the printed word has been a long-time item on the list of endangered cultural goods. Because, in spite of all the cost savings for e-books and audiobooks, the publishing industry makes 95% of its revenue with printed works, they're pulling out the big guns to put a halt to mental stimulation during power outages.
Allegedly, nobody is intending to ban books. Allegedly, freedom of speech isn't in danger. The European Commission is just worried about nature. And because books are made out of paper, they are a fundamental threat for our ecosystem. That is why they felt forced to put out a new EU regulation for deforestation-free products (EUDR - EU 2023/1115) which is mandatory and binding from 30.12.2024 onward.
Soon, everybody who wants to publish a book needs to prove exactly in what time and place the trees that the paper was made from were grown, and that they're coming from a guaranteed deforestation-free farming.
Confirmation of due diligence, that each product is deforestation-free and has been produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production, reference number of the due diligence declaration from the European Commission's information system.
At first I thought it was satire, a hoax. A mockery of the supply chain law.
But no, the [German] Federal Office for Agriculture and Food elaborates:
Deforestation-free products: New EU regulation explained in a video
Anyone in the Common Market who wants to distribute, provide, or work on raw materials and products which fall under EU regulation 1115/ 2023 starting on December 30 2024 needs to abide by certain requirements. The video shows what raw materials and market participants are affected and how the regulation is enforced in practice.
The consumption of agricultural products in the European Union (EU) is responsible for deforestation in other parts of the world. According to the agricultural organization of the United Nations (FAO), up to 90 percent of global deforestation is caused by agricultural demand. The main driver for this is the large demand for raw materials like palm oil, soy, and cocoa in consumer countries such as USA, China, and EU. For the sake of a successful international forest protection, agricultural raw materials must be produced deforestation- and forest-damage-free.
Thus, the EU put out a legally binding regulation. The EU regulation no. 1115/ 2023 (short: EUDR) is supposed to ensure the goal of deforestation-free production by means of binding company due diligence requirements. It has become law on June 29 2023 and applies - after a transitory period of 18 months - from December 30 2024 onward.
For the implementation and execution of the regulation in Germany, the Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung (BLE) [Federal Office for Agriculture and Food] is responsible. The BLE particularly monitors the market participants' compliance with the obligations. However, the corresponding state offices are responsible for the control of domestic raw materials and products from cattle, soy, and wood.
In the explanatory video, you learn how the regulation is put into practice.
Now I hope that this gets blocked on YouTube when I link to it:
I guess this falls under bureaucracy pornography.
I don't know what that's supposed to look like, but everything you buy that's made out of wood now has to tell you exactly when and where it's been produced deforestation-free? And who wants to check whether that's true, and how?
Recently they took our plastic forks and drinking straws. I guess the wooden forks and paper straws are next. Basically you can't even use chopsticks at the Asian restaurants any longer.
Of course the point is that this is unenforceable in practice. Because how is a publisher supposed to print that in their books? At the time of the manuscript, they don't know yet where the book is printed and where the printing company is getting their paper from. Or do they leave a blank field in which the printing company prints in the certification?
Of course this is going to be another nail in the coffin of book and newspaper printing.
Which amuses me in some way, because the administrative court of Berlin stubbornly sticks to the interpretation that "press" is exclusively what is printed and distributed on a substrate - paper, but in the legal sense also a CDROM.
But the reality will be that we will only get digital newspapers, magazines, and books, and not as a download, but as a kind of subscription, access right, to access them using a phone, ebook reader, tablet. And the rule that, what you put in circulation remains in circulation, no longer holds. If, for example, you legally prohibit a book, only the sale of it gets prohibited and the existing stock gets destroyed, but the copies that were already sold won't get collected.
And as far as I know the German lawyers, it's guaranteed they'll try to censor digital books and newspapers in the same way they do social media, and then they get to enforce that passages from already-sold ebooks get deleted or changed, which will be possible. Then the books and newspapers which you have already bought get censored.
And because publishers and book companies are infamous for getting more left-wing and corrupt, it's also predictable that books get retroactively inserted with gendered language and queerness.
In that respect as well, we achieved Orwell's 1984, in which it's already been described that newspapers and books get retroactively changed and adjusted to the political situation.
Deforestation-free greetings!
PS: Damn, I didn't even think of that one. But a reader gave the fitting comment:
Fahrenheit 451 is coming.
Fits like a glove.
The book is an endangered good
The next absurdity.A reader points at this article: The book is an endangered good - new declaration obligation in the EU
Apparently, there is a new hazardous material regulation according to which every product must declare who has put it into circulation.
The only certainty is that, from 13 December 2024 onward, every physical book that is put on the market must be traceable to the manufacturer.
Therefore, from that date on, the jacket must contain the name, postal address, commercial name, and e-mail address of the one who put the book in circulation. This is also true for copies that are already printed. The predictable consequence will be an orgy of stickers in the warehouses of the publishers and second-hand bookstores. For future copies, it will be necessary to adjust the jacket data of all titles in the PDF files for a reprint. The time, costs, and the corresponding environmental harm seem to be negligible. The big players in the bookselling trade have already threatened the publishers to de-list all books which don't fulfill the new so-called GPSR requirements ("General Product Safety Regulations").
Is this satire?
Actually, it's too stupid to be satire. This is so stupid that it has to be real.
But I'm thinking of something else. And apparently I'm not the only one who does:
The requirement to add additional originator information to the jacket seems to have the goal to allow for a quick search and destroying of books by warehouse robots.
I have written quite often that the intelligence agencies are currently working on a total opinion cartography, storing information on every citizen, what their political beliefs are, to put the people on black- and whitelists.
That way, you don't even need to bother looking at the content, open up the book or get it out of the shrink wrap, but you can immediately see where the person who put it in circulation stands politically and then sort it out, into the trash it goes.
Officially, it is obviously just about "deforestation-free" books.
Nobody is intending to prohibit printed books. It is just going to happen all by itself when the, now delayed by 1 year, EU decree EUDR - EU 2023/1115 for "deforestation-free books" and further regulations for alleged sustainability and consumer protection will be implemented. The included demands, the obligation to produce proof of the geo data of the wood used to produce the paper, are in stark contrast to the regulations for foodstuff and animal feed. In the supermarket, it is sufficient that a product has been e.g. "produced for Lidl" and that the ingredients are "from EU countries and non-EU countries", so at least from this planet.
Only the tiniest fraction of wood production is getting used as paper for book pages in the first place. The lion's share is held by advertisement leaflets, throwaway newspapers, and packaging material.
The trend is going towards the electronic book, and that is subject to constant changes and metamorphosis.
Shamed be he who thinks evil of it.
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