Today (26/03/2019) the EU Parliament has passed Articles 13 and 11 of its Copyright Directive. They renamed them Article 17, but we’ll call it whatever we like. The EU claim that the sole purpose of the legislation is to protect content creators copyright, allowing them to be properly remunerated for their work. This appears to be a complete fabrication. It only protects established content creators, those already with the deepest pockets. New artists and content creators are directly harmed by this law.
What the EU have done surpasses the kind of censorship we are accustomed to seeing in China. It is indivisible, in effect, from recent Russian legislation banning any dissent against the state (under the guise of combating ‘fake news.’) It is almost beyond imagination but the EU have passed a law, effectively destroying open access to the Internet, apparently by mistake! Although the more conspiratorially minded might think it was far from an error.
There will now be a 2 year implementation phase during which everyone who cares about the free speech needs to oppose this unbridled censorship law. As a ‘directive’ it is up to each members state to decide how they will interpret the EU’s edict. However, it seems a forgone conclusion the the citizens in the France and the UK, at least, can expect the harshest possible translation into law. Such is the nature of the authoritarian governments in both countries.
It brings to an end open and free access to the Internet within the EU. While the effect is to ensure the tech giants are the only game in town, even Google raised objections. Only the major social media sites, the largest MSM news outlets and leading search engines will potentially be able to afford the costs imposed by the EU. Whether they will choose to make that investment is another matter. Hundreds of millions of people who drive traffic to those sites, by sharing links, will be unable to do so.
It has effectively turned the HTTP based European Internet into a sterile, corporate dominated, information bureau. The European HTTP Internet, as we know it, has effectively been killed off by this unbelievable legislation.
It appears, had Members of the European Parliament (MEP’s) understood what they were voting for, or indeed how to vote, the offensive Articles could have been removed. However, due to some er…….confusion, combined with the traditional EU parliamentary vote rigging, the authoritarians won the day. Perhaps realising they were likely to loose the vote, someone in the EU changed the order of amendment voting at the last moment, throwing the process into disarray.
Amendments were proposed that would have allowed MEP’s to potentially withdraw Articles 13 & 11 (Article 17.) The vote to pass these amendments was lost by just 5 votes (317 to 312.) Unfortunately it appears that at least 13 MEP’s voted the ‘wrong way.’ Ten who wanted to vote for the amendment accidentally voted against, two who voted against meant to vote for, and one who voted intended to abstain. This would have meant that the amendments, allowing Article 13 and 11 to be repealed, would have passed by 11 votes, 320 to 309 (excluding abstentions.)
Given this debacle you would imagine that the EU would allow a clearer rerun of the vote on the whole issue. This time, allowing confused MEP’s an opportunity to understand what they are voting for. Perhaps they might investigate who changed the vote order at the last minute, as they were obviously attempting to gerrymander. Not so. According to the EU:
“MEPs may still issue corrections to their vote in case of mistakes, which will however not change the outcome“
So, effectively, the EU have destroyed the European Internet by mistake. Therefore, as a body, it is entirely justifiable to claim that the EU is stupid.
There have been massive protests by the people against these draconian laws. Huge lobbying efforts by interest groups, large websites and Internet Service Providers across the continent. The EU has completely ignored all of it because the people are utterly irrelevant in the EU’s eyes. what matters to them, more than anything, is stamping their authority upon the people. Regardless of how destructive their lunacy is.
If this doesn’t demonstrate to the British people why they need leave the EU, nothing will.
The legislation the MEP’s have just passed in error is a fundamental attack upon the principles of free speech and freedom of expression. Anyone who thinks this is anything other than mass censorship by a fearful, corporate owned political establishment, who are losing the information war, is deluded.
While their is certainly an argument to be had about how content producers, such as authors and musicians, film makers and writers, are remunerated for their work, this is not why the EU have inserted these censorship Articles into the new legislation. They must control the whole political narrative. It is a simple as that.
People who actually criticise government policy, whose reach is disproportionate to their resources, thanks to the current iteration of the Internet, must be silenced. The banking cartel, who own the EU, demand it. Only their own, compliant mainstream media (MSM) are to be allowed to speak, providing they say the right thing.
Article 13 Stupidity:
- Any commercial site or app to which users can upload information, say Bitchute or Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Youtube, must make ‘best efforts’ to buy licenses for anything subject to copyright. A mammoth, hugely expensive undertaking.
- These platforms will be compelled to create ‘upload filters’ in an attempt to sterilise their user content from sharing copyright protected material. You know stuff like MSM articles, music and video’s etc. These filters won’t be able to detect satire, fair comment, evidence based research or anything approaching a reasonable critique of information.
- If a court, and don’t forget the ECJ does whatever its corporate masters tell it to do, decides these platforms aren’t doing ‘enough’ to filter copyright material they will be held ‘directly liable.’ Forcing them all to interpret this moronic EU legislation as harshly as possible. Mass censorship in other words.
The Effect of Article 13 Stupidity:
This will be prohibitively expensive for all but the most powerful Social Media giants. Crushing the burgeoning ‘free market’ of startup Social Media competitors and smaller platforms. No surprise there then?
Users will be unable to share MSM news stories, music they like, film clips, most meme’s (image copyright you see) and will basically be restricted only to sharing plain text. Making most Social Media platforms indistinguishable from forums for most of its users. The sharing of evidence and open source investigations, such as those which have exposed the MSM’s lies about Syria, will cease. Which is the real reason the EU appear to have manipulated the vote.
Even the likes of Google may be forced to pull their servers from EU territory. Turning Europe into a sort of Internet backwater, unable to compete with the innovations racing ahead in the rest of the world. As I said in the title, the EU has managed to prove itself, as a body, irretrievably stupid.
Article 11 Stupidity:
1. Anyone using any snippets of any media articles must buy a license off the publisher first, before they share it. There are no exceptions to this ‘link tax.’ The EU claim that ‘not for profit’ organisations are exempt but that’s because they either don’t understand, or don’t care about, the impact of their silly law.
The Effect of Article 11 Stupidity:
The only people who will be able to share links to mainstream media stories will be the mainstream media and uber-rich corporations. Sharing a link with a link preview, such as those generated when you share a link on Twitter (headline, excerpt and header image) will cost you money. So people won’t bother. Independent artists who rely upon social media shares to promote their work, will lose that ability. The precise opposite of the EU’s claimed intention.
Social Media in the EU will become little more than extensions of the MSM. As long as you are only interested in posting pictures of your cat, or regaling the world with fascinating snippets about what you had for lunch, you’ll be fine. But if you don’t absolutely toe the line, blindly parroting the edicts of the state, you won’t be welcome in the EU.
The Effect of the EU’s Stupidity:
You can probably wave goodbye to Social Media in the EU. The costs and complexity of implementing this censorship would present enormous challenges even to Facebook and Twitter. They may well simply withdraw their services from Europe. Even if they do attempt to meet the implementation costs, which seems extremely doubtful, all that will be left is ‘official’ announcements and MSM propaganda. So there won’t be much point in using these platforms in the EU anyway. As for new startup social media who might want to fill the void they’ll have absolutely no chance whatsoever.
The idea behind all this legislation is to silence any and all criticism of the mainstream media and official government narratives. Some say this isn’t true and it’s all about protecting intellectual property. If they seriously believe that I have some sea front time shares in Switzerland they might like to buy.
Like most EU legislation it is vague. This is so each member state can interpret it, as they see fit, during the two year implementation phase. Others have pointed out that the technology isn’t there to enable the scaling required. Although they presume the EU care, which they don’t.
Be in no doubt, this is an attempt by the EU to ensure globalist domination of the Internet by pricing all but the biggest corporations out of the public information sphere. It is a direct attack upon small blogs like Iain Davis but, although that is an irrelevant bonus for the EU, it is obvious their target are the more influential alternative media outlets such as the UK Column, 21stCenturyWire, The Corbett Report, Live Leak and so on.
It is the kind of legislation you would expect from a technocratic dictatorship. Which is precisely what the EU is.
But the real stupidity of this myopic, desperate flailing from an institution losing its grip, both on the people it rules & despises, and the propaganda narrative it is frantic to maintain, is that ultimately, none of it will work. Initially, non EU based mirror sites and proxy servers will abound. However, seeing as the EU have just proven themselves capable of surpassing China’s censorship laws, they will almost certainly ban VPN’s eventually, just as China have. However, in the mean time, there are already alternatives to the HTTP based internet and this legislation will boost investment in those.
Decentralised blockchain protocols such as IPFS and DAB use independent nodes to interconnect. This decision by the EU will provide a significant impetus for the development of such protocols as millions, previously unaware oftheir existence, clamour for a free and open Internet. There’s always an upside.
Even though the vast majority of people are completely oblivious to what has just happened, they are about to be stunned by the reality of EU technocracy. The EU have just picked a technological battle with 650 million people. They can’t even imagine the technological solutions that will emerge as a result. If they think they’ve lost control of the narrative now, they haven’t seen anything yet.
Firstly, by discouraging the sharing of information from ‘official sources’ by anyone other than the ‘official license owners’ they will force everyone in the EU to look for alternatives. Millions will rush towards alternative technologies that can’t be censored by corporate fascists. The EU’s claim they are protecting copyright is a thin veneer to hide the unpalatable reality. They are determined to crush free speech and all dissent to their tyranny. It won’t work.
Not only is this legislation fascistic, it is almost certainly illegal. Article 10 of the The Berne Convention guarantees the people’s right to ‘fair criticism’ using quotations. In addition, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights states:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”
There will undoubtedly be a slew of legal challenges to this stupid EU legislation. Making lots of money for EU lawyers (win or lose) of course. However, the EU have demonstrated they don’t feel they have to obey the law. Even their own.
European online business innovation and the online market place will be destroyed. Pretty dumb from a business perspective. It seems this is a price the EU are willing to pay in order to protect their control of information. The economic impact will be devastating, but they just don’t care. As long as their project continues the people economic welfare doesn’t matter at all.
The EU is an oppressive, technocratic, corporate funded dictatorship (like most governments.) However, we are many and they are few. They have no idea what they have done. It is now obvious they are nothing but tyrants and this legislation proves it, beyond any reasonable doubt. Now we have no choice. We must and we will ignore them and build our own decentralised alternatives.
Screw the EU!
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I don’t think there will be sufficient technical means to implement this stupid article by EU. VPN providers like Surfshark, ExpressVPN, CyberGhostVPN or NordVPN and other reliable providers will do everything to bypass the restrictions “on paper”. So apart form hugely complex implementation of this article as it is they will have to think how to block Surfshark users or ban VPNs in general. So IF they do that they will join the list alongside Russia, China, Belarus and other authoritarian countries, gg EU.
Unfortunately I really wouldn’t put it past them. To be honest, I can’t tell the difference between the EU Commission and the Politburo anyway.
Europe is on its way to become the next third world, while the US, Asia, Africa will go ahead.