The European Union is voting soon on a number of measures that could seriously disrupt any web traffic going to, from, or through Europe. These measures were shot down before but they've been dredged back up. If you live in Europe please contact your member of the European Parliament to oppose them:
Under Article 11 -- the "link tax" -- online services are banned from allowing links to news services on their platforms unless they get a license to make links to the news; the rule does not define "news service" or "link," leaving 28 member states to make up their own definitions and leaving it to everyone else to comply with 28 different rules.
Under Article 13 -- the "censorship machines" -- anyone who allows users to communicate in public by posting audio, video, stills, code, or anything that might be copyrighted -- must send those posts to a copyright enforcement algorithm. The algorithm will compare it to all the known copyrighted works (anyone can add anything to the algorithm's database) and censor it if it seems to be a match.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/09/why-whole-world-should-be-arms-about-eus-looming-internet-catastrophe
Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on September 08, 2018, 12:55:24 AM
Under Article 13 -- the "censorship machines" -- anyone who allows users to communicate in public by posting audio, video, stills, code, or anything that might be copyrighted -- must send those posts to a copyright enforcement algorithm. The algorithm will compare it to all the known copyrighted works (anyone can add anything to the algorithm's database) and censor it if it seems to be a match.
I wonder if it would be possible to craft a set of images or videos that exploits weaknesses in the algorithm in order to generate a huge number of false positives. Seems like an interesting challenge.
But in practice, I expect such a restriction would just result in wiping out every internet forum aside from twitter, facebook, and the youtube comment system. Either every site would need to implement their own version of this (would would be absurdly expensive) or they would need to be integrated with a central authority (which would be a mess of apocalyptic proportions).
https://boingboing.net/2018/09/11/never-again.html
Speaking of the EU and breaking things...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/as-sweden-swings-right-bannons-anti-eu-crusade-looks-north/ar-BBNaSCS?ocid=spartanntp
Are
Closed borders, nationalism, and paranoid schizophrenic islamophobia are still retarded ideas, but they should leave over Article 13
Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on September 11, 2018, 11:56:00 PM
I hate to say it, but it this passes they'd be right to leave. Closed borders, nationalism, and paranoid schizophrenic islamophobia would still be retarded ideas, but they'd be right to leave the EU
Welcome to the fun and exciting world of nationalism, jackass. Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on September 12, 2018, 03:34:10 AM
Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on September 11, 2018, 11:56:00 PM
I hate to say it, but it this passes they'd be right to leave. Closed borders, nationalism, and paranoid schizophrenic islamophobia would still be retarded ideas, but they'd be right to leave the EU
Welcome to the fun and exciting world of nationalism, jackass. Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Bannon's reasons why people should leave the EU (national sovereignty, national identity, etc) are still retarded.
The problem is that the EU is currently poised to deliver a non-retarded reason for countries to leave. There are a lot of benefits to being in the EU, and they're well worth giving up the kind of things that Bannon is worried about; the things he cares about are largely worthless anyway. They are not, however, worth giving up a free and open internet.
Here's a diagram. In descending order of importance:
The Internet>International cooperation>Individual nations and the other stupid shit bannon cares about
Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on September 12, 2018, 05:25:28 AM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on September 12, 2018, 03:34:10 AM
Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on September 11, 2018, 11:56:00 PM
I hate to say it, but it this passes they'd be right to leave. Closed borders, nationalism, and paranoid schizophrenic islamophobia would still be retarded ideas, but they'd be right to leave the EU
Welcome to the fun and exciting world of nationalism, jackass. Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Bannon's reasons why people should leave the EU (national sovereignty, national identity, etc) are still retarded.
The problem is that the EU is currently poised to deliver a non-retarded reason for countries to leave. There are a lot of benefits to being in the EU, and they're well worth giving up the kind of things that Bannon is worried about; the things he cares about are largely worthless anyway. They are not, however, worth giving up a free and open internet.
Here's a diagram. In descending order of importance:
The Internet>International cooperation>Individual nations and the other stupid shit bannon cares about
Look, let me just quote you on this for a little context.
QuoteClosed borders, nationalism, and paranoid schizophrenic islamophobia would still be retarded ideas, but
QuoteClosed borders, nationalism, and paranoid schizophrenic islamophobia would still be retarded ideas, but
Ask Britain how that fucking Brexit thing is working out.
QuoteClosed borders, nationalism, and paranoid schizophrenic islamophobia would still be retarded ideas, but
that "would" is because the vote is in the future, not because nationalism would stop being stupid. in retrospect it probably should have been a "will"; "Closed borders, nationalism, and paranoid schizophrenic islamophobia will still be retarded ideas regardless of the vote's outcome, but..."
Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on September 12, 2018, 06:17:24 AM
that "would" is because the vote is in the future, not because nationalism would stop being stupid. in retrospect it probably should have been a "will"; "Closed borders, nationalism, and paranoid schizophrenic islamophobia will still be retarded ideas regardless of the vote's outcome, but..."
BUT
Don't wanna be an asshole, but at this point you're just baiting.
:drama1:
Quote from: Con-troll on September 12, 2018, 11:21:28 AM
Don't wanna be an asshole, but at this point you're just baiting.
Observe the bucket of my fucks. It is as empty as our Dear Leader's head.
If it comes down to an either-or choice between a free web and open borders (and of course it would be best to have both but it looks like the entertainment industry is going to do their damnedest to make sure we can't have both) a free web is going to do more to foster international understanding. How often do you travel and how often do you talk to foreign people online?
Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on September 13, 2018, 12:11:31 AM
If it comes down to an either-or choice between a free web and open borders (and of course it would be best to have both but it looks like the entertainment industry is going to do their damnedest to make sure we can't have both) a free web is going to do more to foster international understanding. How often do you travel and how often do you talk to foreign people online?
So what you're saying is that jack-booted fascism is okay as long as you have broadband?
Well, it passed. Let's see how this turns out...
The law was passsed.
What no-one has mentioned is how this is to be enforced. Youtube's own hilariously inept copyright protection system cost them hundreds of millions to produce, and still insists, for example, that Sony owns the patent to a private musician's rendition of Bach.
Google also successfully fought link-taxing in Germany, by threatening to entirely remove news websites from their listings. There is no new mechanism to stop them from doing this again.
Also, there is a large amount of discretion given to individual member states, so if this was an attempt to put pressure on Google and Facebook, it's going to fail as their lobbyists play small countries againt big ones, and those with strong telecom sectors against weaker ones.
All in all, this legislation won't be able to be properly implemented. It's just a matter of sitting back and waiting for it to implode.
Luckily I think it still needs to be ratified by the member nations; thank the stars for checks and balances.
There is that too, but I think it's likely to be approved - Germany is in favour of tighter regulations, as is France, the UK wants even more stringent approaches to the internet...Estonia might vote against it, but they won't rally much support, especially with Germany-France on the opposing side.
UK shouldn't really get a vote should they? They are quitting the union.
Quote from: Cain on September 13, 2018, 02:25:35 AMthe UK wants even more stringent approaches to the internet
IIRC the UK already has heavyhanded automatic internet censorship, right?
Quote from: Pergamos on September 13, 2018, 05:32:42 AM
UK shouldn't really get a vote should they? They are quitting the union.
Until they quit, however, they are still a full member, and I believe the vote is scheduled for January.
Quote from: Prelate Diogenes Shandor on September 13, 2018, 05:43:03 AM
Quote from: Cain on September 13, 2018, 02:25:35 AMthe UK wants even more stringent approaches to the internet
IIRC the UK already has heavyhanded automatic internet censorship, right?
It's trying. For some reason, the company I use don't seem to abide by a lot of those restrictions, possibly due to Swiss ownership. They did try and hand over our entire commerical internet infrastructure to Huawei, a company that has strong ties to China's military. Then they discussed putting a backdoor in every computer and website in the country. Then they decided they wanted people to have to enter ID info to access porn sites. And most recently, they want to ban all Facebook groups with over 500 members, or make them public.
At the moment, the most heavyhanded it can get with censorship is issuing a D-Notice to news outlets, which will mostly abide by them. Fortunately, this isn't done very often,and it's old legislation dating back to the early 20th century.
The porn one is the most bizarre. I can't imagine what possible positive effect that could ever possibly have.
The only effects it could ever have are harmful disruptive ones such as making it more difficult for teenagers to get access to porn and reducing revenues of the adult film industry.
It was bad enough in my own youth having to make up a fake birthdate and these shitheads want people to have to get fake IDs to back the fake birthdays up? Thank god I live in America.
I don't know how they intend to try and convince the wider porn community to adopt these measures. Fortunately, neither do they.
It would especially be hard to get a company like Pornhub, or any number of camera streaming services, which rely on ad revenue and data analytics for income, to threaten their own revenue stream in this manner
What's awesome here is that the flow chart says "you're fucked" no matter which decisions are made.