EU Strikes Down French "3 Strikes" Copyright Infringement Law 271
Erris writes "Opendotdotdot has good news about laws in the EU: 'EU culture ministers yesterday (20 November) rejected French proposals to curb online piracy through compulsory measures against free downloading ... [and instead pushed] for "a fair balance between the various fundamental rights" while fighting online piracy, first listing "the right to personal data protection," then "the freedom of information" and only lastly "the protection of intellectual property." [This] indicates that the culture ministers and their advisers are beginning to understand the dynamics of the Net, that throttling its use through crude instruments like the "three strikes and you're out" is exactly the wrong thing to do.'"
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Above all are the human rights, the right of information (communication) is way on top, a basic human right.
You could probably find offences that if repeated sufficiently often could warrant a reduction of this right, sharing IP as we know it is not going to be one of them.
Re:Not completly good news (Score:5, Informative)
The member states signed treaties that they will have to obey certain restrictions imposed upon them by the EU. If they didn't want that they shouldn't have joined the EU. They wanted the benefits, they gotta live with the downsides too. France isn't a small country and could certainly have stayed out of the EU without being bullied into joining.
Can we get some of that in New Zealand? (Score:4, Informative)
Can we get some of this "common-sense" in New Zealand please?
"Anti-piracy" 3-strikes was railroaded into our copyright law (section s92a) after select committee hearings and due process. Then the Minister had the gall to complain that all the moaners should have got involved in the process.
Re:Huh? Heu???? some precisions (Score:5, Informative)
I read the blog post and I find the title a litle inaccurate: the EU level clearly rejected the three strike principle to be extended as a EU directive but it is unclear if the decision will force France to back down on its national law.
It may need a directive to specify that this kind of approach is forbidden. Then, it may need a formal complain from the EU commission or a French citizen size the European Court of Justice to have the law revoked or modified.
The parent post also mentionned prison here. But the law was specifically designed to avoid sending people to prison for what is a minor offence.
Personnaly, I don't find the principle of three strikes and you are disconnected so problematic as it looks like road regulationsBUT there are some serious issues with the current implementations:
Ok, I guess my karma will suffer from the opinion above but please, could someone explain we what would be a balanced approach that would enforce right of creators and freedoms of Internet users?
What are your proposal slashcrowd?
Re:Oh "good news" (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Can we get some of that in New Zealand? (Score:5, Informative)
In New Zealand the minister responsible for this, Judth Tizard, was kicked out the parliament after losing in the recent NZ election. Many people in the IT community worked against her.
Getting kicked out didn't stop her from going on a radio tirade about how it was necessary to remove due process and oversight by cutting off people who *might* be infringing [theyworkforyou.co.nz]. Yes, she even says "might". She actually believes she's doing this for the good of New Zealand and many other people in power do too.
The law will come into effect in February 2009 after a parliamentary vote so we've got until then to change minds. People against these parts of the law should join the groups working against this such as Internet NZ [internetnz.net.nz] and the NZOSS [nzoss.org.nz].
The Labour party (which she was part of) lost the last election and now the National party are in power. It remains to be seen whether they're going to do better but we can only try.
Re:How do you get membership? (Score:4, Informative)
No state should ever kill anyone.
The single most stupid damging human afflication is
beyond doubt 'patriotism" I have never been able to work out any useful function of patriotism.
Its just a mechanism of propaganda that allows govts to start wars.
European Parliament elections (Score:5, Informative)
European Parliament elections are coming up soon, have yet to find a resource to help pick decent candidates to elect, reward these kinds of decisions...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2009 [wikipedia.org]
Re:How do you get membership? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Informative)
Why? Repeat offender laws are remarkably effective in normal crime control; what makes this different?
Repeat offenders are usually tried and convicted. Not just pointed out in the street and incarcerated. Three strikes in this case means three accusations and no more internet. Not three convictions.
Re:How do you get membership? (Score:5, Informative)
"Why should society pay to place a criminal in perpetual (until death) incarceration'
As of February 2004, 113 inmates had been found innocent and released from death row. More than half of these have been released in the last 10 years. That means one person has been exonerated for every eight people executed.
A quick Google will show how bad the problem is.
The ACLU also wrote:
A study by Columbia University professor James Liebman examined thousands of capital sentences that had been reviewed by courts in 34 states from 1973 to 1995. ""An astonishing 82 percent of death row inmates did not deserve to receive the death penalty,"" he said in his conclusion. ""One in twenty death row inmates is later found not guilty.""
Enough reasons for you?
actually (Score:2, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Informative)
*Just look at how Meatloaf had to sue for nearly 20 years because the record company said "Bat out of Hell I", which to this day is still on the top 200 chart, hadn't actually generated a profit! I shit you not!*
Meat Loaf sued songwriter/producer Jim Steinman over the right to use the trademark "Bat out of hell" in conjunction musical performances and recordings. They settled out of court. I am not aware of any legal action resulting from the record company's failure to pay Mr. Loaf for the 45+ million copies of his albums sold to date. Perhaps you can provide a link?
Re:How do you get membership? (Score:2, Informative)
It's pretty obvious that death penalty does not deterr crime. It can even push it up. I can bet that if someone commits a crime for which he knows he will get killed - he won't have any limits anymore. So he can get even more brutal.
However that is NOT the point. There are 3 other things on the topic: punishment, costs and safety.
Do you really think, that serial murderer will get his punishment in prison? That anyone will ever touch him? He will be the king of the hill exploiting other prisoners who commited lesser crimes. If one is strong mentally he can even persuade others to become more violent when their penalty is done.
As for costs - let's assume that the criminal killed your mother/wife/daughter. Congratulations - now you will pay his "rent" for the rest of HIS life. It might be 1$ per month, but - still you do that, by taxes etc. It's pretty bad if state can't pay of your medical treatment (because lack of money) but they HAVE to pay for prisoners (you don't want them to run free anyway).
As for public safety - you can't guarantee that someone convicted for life will be there until end of his life. Law changes, amnesties come and go, and it might happen that murderer eventually will go out after 30-40 years. Sure, he will be 70-80, but if his psyche is broken, he might want to fell the thrill of the murder once again.
I thought about solution for above problems (cost - things) and I came up with this one: While law should allow for this kind of conviction there should be possibility that someone can "save" prisoner from his fate either by taking him in (countries massively against death penalty for example) or paying for his stay at prison.
However there is one single flaw in this solution. While people like to yell how much they are against death penalty there are only a few, who want to take actions against it.