I don’t know how many of you are aware of the fact that the european union tries to renew it’s copyright law for month now. The whole process didn’t fetch much attention in the mainstream media (at least in germany where I live) and this is very bad considered whats on stake here.
The federal government of europa wants automated upload filters to filter copyrighted content from being uploaded.
Their idea is to enforce every large content hoster, e.g. YouTube, Reddit etc ( proably even Steemit ) to either block copyrighted content at all, or, to buy bulk licences from big media companies like Disney, Timewarner – you name it – to get the rights for short snippets of their property being used.
This is an attack on the Internet as it is and it endangers the way we use it.
I for myself like memes. I really like to surf the internet for funny stuff, for fan art of famous series and movies, and, especially YouTube Poop, a often flashy remix of widely known contents or persons of real life or movies and series. I really enjoy the artistic freedom those artist can use to create something entirely new out of existing stuff. But that means that people creating such stuff are dependend on a steady flow of new snippets of content, and this stream is endangered by these new laws.
( It is important to emphasise, that I for my self also use the work of others to recreate new stuff out of it and I dont mind anyone doing that with my own work! )
But in general the fact could be at hand, that you will be blocked from uploading memes or anything someone claimed copyright on.
Its a fundamental principle of human nature to explore and research, to share new Ideas with others, having them improving existing stuff having it shared again.
The Internet is a medium for that innovation power. Any intrusion to such processes with have an impact.
I don’t have a TV. I get my news, my entertainment over the internet and communicated over it as well. Since the wordwidenet developed, users are more and more empowered to take part in the development process, today it’s even for an amateur to set up and run a webpage, services like twitter, reddit and youtube have revolutionized the way we interact.
And now some big media want to cut it all down for profit
One of the biggest impact on the introduction of upload filters will be the disadvantages small companies will have: Developening such a software is very expensive ( YouTubes content ID algorithm have cost over 100 million US Dollars ) and complex. Most companies will not be able to afford that and will necessly have to buy licences from big companies like Google or Microsoft. This will enlarge the power of such companies even more and lead to more centralization on the internet. And also
does not always work correctly, there have claims being made, which were injustified. It had been the case that creatons got their content infringed because of a false alarm, having a huge impact resulting in losses in their revenue. Some People try to live of their work, for those these false claims are catastrophal. Forbes puplished an interesting article regarding these flawed filters
most importantly, once these changes happens, its impacts are unforeseen. It may be hard to imagine to some people, but for me the greatest danger lies in further adoption of this technology. Once implemented, this filters could be used for plain censorship.
These algorithms could filter out any inconvienent oppinions out of any debate and are a mighty tool at hand.
I urge any reads of you, coming from an european country to participate in protests against these new laws. Inform you if there are any in your area. Here is a map, which might be helpful to find any!
https://savetheinternet.info/demos
Soon there is election for european parliament, so call there or write an Email to these senators urging them to vote against. The final vote will be on Tuesday 26 of march. Until then you can reach out to Members of european parliament and urge them to vote no on the subject at hand.
The webpage of saveyourinternet is very useful again, finding members and their oppinion on their topics, giving you their telephone numbers and email adresses at the same time!
https://saveyourinternet.eu/act/
in case you don't speak german, it says something like "hands off my internet!"
Thank you for your time!
