EU Copyright Proposal That Would Destroy Internet Memes Being Protested With Internet Memes
from the meme-while-you-still-can dept
The EU is no stranger to bad laws, but its desire to “protect” copyright holders from the Wild West Internet™ is one of its worst. A proposed change — known as Article 13 — would force social media platforms and other service providers to preemptively block copyrighted content during uploads unless permission has been specifically granted by the rightsholder.
Here’s what Mike Masnick had to say about the impossibilities Article 13 would demand:
How would a site like Instagram create a working filter? Could it catch direct 100% copies? Sure, probably. But what if you post a photo to Instagram of someone standing in a room that has a copyright-covered photograph or painting on the wall? Does that need to be blocked? What about a platform like Github where tons of code is posted? Is Github responsible for managing every bit of copyright-covered code and making sure no one copies any of it? What about sites that aren’t directly about the content, but which involve copyright-covered content, such as Tinder. Many of the photos of people on Tinder are covered by copyright, often held by a photographer, rather than the uploader. Will Tinder need to put in place a filter that blocks all of those uploads? Who will that be helping exactly? How about a blog like ours? Are we going to be responsible to make sure no one posts a copyright-covered quote in the comments? How are we to design and build a database of all copyright-covered content to block such uploads (and won’t such a database potentially create an even larger copyright question in the first place)? What about a site like Airbnb? What if a photo of a home on Airbnb includes copyright-covered content in the background? Kickstarter? Patreon? I’m not sure how either service (which, we should remind you, both help artists get paid) can really function if this becomes law. Would they need a filter to block creators from uploading their own works?
There’s a movement underway to destroy this proposal before it gets implemented. One of the internet’s greatest collective creations/forms of communication (ymmv) is memes. Memes are almost always composed of copyrighted material, but no one would seriously argue they somehow diminish the market for the underlying content. Some would disingenuously argue this, and those are the sort of people who are pushing impossible filters to block third-party uploads.
If it’s memes that are (inadvertently) targeted — along with the freewheeling nature of internet communications — then it’s memes that will be pressed into service to fight the war against Article 13. Beckett Mufson has compiled some of the best ones for Vice. The meme warriors started with a set of memes that cleared Article 13’s copyright filters.
This was followed by a misguided, but hilarious, attempt to get the EU to destroy itself by placing its flag front-and-center when crafting memes.
Of course, the flag isn’t capable of being targeted for preemptive takedown since it’s in the Creative Commons, but the underlying message — that the proposal is ridiculous and harmful — still comes through.
But the best of the batch is this one, which speaks to a great deal of our coverage of the EU and its bizarre treatment of copyright protection, free speech, and other ancillary issues. When a terrible, extremely harmful law is proposed by the EU, it’s just another day at work for the governing body.
Only the most antagonistic of rightsholders would view memes as a destructive force pushing creators into poverty. But the EU’s proposal takes exactly this hard line: it wants platforms to treat every bit of copyrighted material being uploaded as infringing by default. This won’t just bankrupt smaller tech companies and make millions of users miserable. It will also do serious damage to internet communications in general, pushing platforms towards restricting users’ interactions with the service, either by limiting their ability to post content or by suspending/deleting accounts for alleged Article 13 violations. The law is stupid and dangerous. Far too often, so is the EU.
Filed Under: article 13, censorship machines, copyright, copyright directive, eu, eu copyright directive, mandatory filters, memes, protests
Comments on “EU Copyright Proposal That Would Destroy Internet Memes Being Protested With Internet Memes”
"This bad boy can fit so many shitty laws in it"...
Even worse, it can fit so many shitty politicians in it.
Re: "This bad boy can fit so many shitty laws in it"...
Now I know why there needs to be a tarif on European cars in the USA.
uncopyrighted (and generally toxic) memes
But it would indeed seem that many of the most popular internet memes are public domain. Let’s not forget the most pervasive meme in internet history, the so-called "Happy Merchant" (AKA "Jew-bwa-ha-ha") by an artist known by the nom de guerre A. Wyatt Mann.
Another well-known offensive meme (one that has thankfully died down in popularity) is "Goatse," also not copyrighted as far as anyone knows.
There are many other memes of a similarly foul odor that remain apparently uncopyrighted, perhaps because no respectable person would ever dare to claim credit for them.
Re: uncopyrighted (and generally toxic) memes
There is a big part of the problem. Goatse is covered by copyright. It’s a photograph, and as such is automatically granted a copyright. The fact that nobody knows who holds the copyright doesn’t change that.
Re: Re: The only way to test a mine is to step on it
Nonsense, what possible problems could arise from people not knowing, or even having any real ability to learn at times, the copyright details of a given piece?
I mean it’s not like there’s the potential for massive ‘do not pass GO, do not collect $200, go straight to sued into the ground’ fines for infringement, such that a chilling effect is created wherein a work is essentially untouchable because no-one has any idea who owns it or even it’s copyright status and no-one dares find out the hard way.
question
but could Article 13 have a bad effect on the Creative Commons?
Re: question
Depend on whether it is considered permission, or if a site must ask each creator for explicit permission. The link tax could also have an impact is it is a mandatory tax, and people cannot avoid demanding it.
Despite any claims that the proposal are to benefit the creators of content, what they will actually do is increase the power of publishers so that they can control a larger percentage of creative output by forcing self publishers off line.
Companies can always limit their market size
> How would a site like Instagram create a working filter?
If they can’t figure out other ways, they can hire some real humans to do the filtering process.
If they don’t have enough money to hire the humans, they might want to handle smaller market, since clearly they cannot service that large group of people.
Proper companies do not grow larger than what they can actually handle.
Re: Companies can always limit their market size
When what they are required to handle increases drastically I don’t think it’s that simple.
Lots of American companies simply blocked EU users on GDPR because it was too much effort. Won’t these services have a harder time? How does the consumer benefit if these services are made impossible to run?
Re: Re: Companies can always limit their market size
Re: Re: Re: Companies can always limit their market size
Your gasp of the scale of postings and works being published on the Internet is way off scale. What any individual see of that flood is a fraction of a percent of the output, and will attract audiences that are too small for any company to expend the effort in deciding whether it should be published or not. So to try and prevent a small amount of infringement in the vast outpouring of self published works, you would kill peoples ability to self publish.
The only practical route to enabling large volume self publishing is to provide a platform, and let people get on with trying to attract an audience. Oh, just in case you did not see the reports, ContentID only deals with music ans sound, and does a fairly poor job in that limited field, and blocks a lot of fair use.
Yes a lot of that content is not something I would want to see or hears, but that does not matter because I have found enough podcasts and YouTube channels to fill in my retirement, and I do not worry that there might be something even more interesting out there that I have not discovered..
Re: Re: Re: Companies can always limit their market size
It does not scale. Anyone who thinks what you describe is possible simply does not understand the task.
Re: Companies can always limit their market size
What you are ignoring is that there is no way that enough companies can hire enough people to vet what the general public wish to publish. Your approach will kill the Internet stone dead because it will give a very limited number of people the power to decide what gets published, and lots of what will be submitted will not even get looked at to see whether it can be published.
The whole reason that many authors, musicians and actor became household names is that they were competing in a very limited market where the publishers, labels and studios decide who could get their works in front of the public. Pre-Internet most creative works never got a chance of finding an audience because they were never accepted for publication, and that is the world your proposals would restore.
Re: Re: Companies can always limit their market size
“Your approach will kill the Internet stone dead “
aka: Mission Accomplished
Re: Companies can always limit their market size
Proper companies do not grow larger than what they can actually handle.
Makes sense. In the case of Article 13, smaller companies could just limit their traffic and therefore have fewer lookups to run against the EU’s universal database of "all rightsholders, copyrighted material, fair use, exceptions, and situational interpretations".
Re: Companies can always limit their market size
Yes, any companies that don’t have $60 BILLION to throw at the problem like Google should just stay home and forget about joining the market. Welcome to a “Natural Monopoly.”
Re: Re: Companies can always limit their market size
Re: Re: Re: "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
A) Put forth a [Citation and Evidence Needed].
B) If the harm is actually real, weigh the costs of a legal system where that sort of thing can happen vs the harm that would result from a legal system where it’s slightly less likely to happen, but which also has vastly less platforms and companies in the field because it’s too dangerous to operate, and where what platforms there are are significantly crippled by insane demands by industries who don’t care for ‘work’ or ‘competition’.
Dealing with one ‘harm’ by causing even more is not even remotely a sensible response.
Re: Re: Re:2 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Re: Re: Re:3 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
If entering big companies markets is a bad idea, you should have given up you software project before you started.
By the way. Google was the small newcomer to the search engine market, and they took out the giant of the day. Alta Vista. FaceBook was a small project at one time, and they have taken the crown from MySpace. Heck, at one time Microsoft and Apple were two blokes in a garage competing against a myriad of microcomputer makers who were well established.
Regulationa that seal the position of the big players only leads to stagnation, as it eliminates the small high risk start ups, where many fail, some become stable small business, and a few lead the next technological revolutions.
Re: Re: Re:4 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Re: Re: Re:5 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
“This could be true. Unfortunately this wasn’t possible solution.”
So you make knowing market size a requirement for everybody else except yourself.
This is why nobody takes you copyright tards seriously. It’s always one rule for you and a “fuck you” rule for everybody else.
Re: Re: Re:6 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Re: Re: Re:7 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Then there is a good reason to ignore your credibility.
It’s not just random “I ignore you because I think you’re an asshole” kind of issue.
It still applies to you, because you jump outside of definition of what copyright law actually entitles you to.
Re: Re: Re:8 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Re: Re: Re:9 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Are you saying that humans are only allowed to do what copyright law entitles? Everything outside of it is illegal?
That’s exactly the point you’ve been trying to beat us over the head with, dumbfuck.
it doesn’t limit operations to only those allowed in the law text
Aereo would like a word with you. Also every single fucking time the RIAA ordered pre-emptive shutdowns of new technology.
Owner of the property needs to check whatever their equipment is doing and interrupt the evil stuff, in case something bad happens.
Yet every single time the RIAA demands money based on a wrong IP address you keep giving them benefit of the doubt.
Re: Re: Re:10 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Re: Re: Re:11 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
but given that the IP address already consumed RIAA’s product
Ray Scantlebury. Tanya Andersen. Gertrude Walton. The RIAA’s sheer inaccuracy in finding these evil, evil IP addresses is legendary. "Sometimes", my ass.
This is natural when they’re processing thousands of settlement demands in their order processing system
Which, by your own definition, would mean they overstepped their limits – which should have been done at the very beginning before they commenced their "process", and should be penalized for their behavior. But for some magical reason the RIAA doesn’t qualify for the rubrics you insist on everyone else.
RIAA payment processing experts
Hey, look, I can use big words too to try and sound sophisticated and pretentious! And if the IP address turns out to be wrong and they got the wrong guy, do they still have to send the RIAA money? Going by your track record, probably so, because apparently only you and the RIAA deserve a mansion.
Re: Re: Re:12 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Re: Re: Re:13 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
“Yeah, let me order more stuff from the guy trying to sue me for no reason.”
You have a very dim idea of how consumers work. But considering that you want six million bucks for two advertised buses it’s not surprising.
Re: Re: Re:14 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Re: Re: Re:3 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Your 30 person startup is going to be able to handle 10,000 low quality products to the market. With google’s numbers, there’s huge demand for products in this category, but how does this startup’s output is going to help solve the 100,000,000,000 number? The startup is doing nothing else than damage to their customers.
… What the hell are you on about? What 30 person startup is involved in ten thousand products of any sort? If you’re going to give examples of harm it might help if you used actual examples from the real world, not some unrealistic hypothetical where you just pulled the numbers from your backside.
Of course this whole discussion was about google vs oracle lawsuits, where oracle was the one who correctly marked their location to marketplace, and google was the one who wanted to ignore the markings.
No, it really wasn’t, it was all about how a large company like Google can deal with stupid regulations like ‘pre-screen everything for possible infringement, compare it to a copyright database that doesn’t exist‘, whereas a smaller company cannot, locking the current players in place.
Judging by the rest of your comment however I suspect that you would see that as a feature, not a bug.
Companies do not ‘mark out their location in the marketplace’, so long as they have the resources anyone is free to enter in and compete, and if the larger companies object to the competition that’s too damn bad.
how is this "even more harm"? If some startup needs to reconsider their approach when they’re accidentally going to large player’s market, it’s just useful activity.
Yeah, that’s… not how it works. Large companies don’t get to lock down a given market such that potential competition has to consider whether or not they can ‘do anything’, it’s up to them, not the larger company, to decide whether or not they feel they can offer something people will be interested in, and whether or not they can offer it at the same scale is irrelevant.
As always I am so very glad that your ideas for things have little to no bearing on reality, because things would be an absolute mess were it otherwise.
Re: Re: Re:4 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Re: Re: Re:5 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Define ‘causing damage’, because if it’s ‘they’re butting into ‘our’ market and we’re not making as much money because of it’ then yeah, that’s what competition is.
Re: Re: Re:6 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
Re: Re: Re:7 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
What is it with you copyright-types and your inability to separate the analog from the digital? Oh, right – you’ll use it only when it’s most convenient, never mind that established law already punishes analog and digital deprivation very, very differently. Snore.
Re: Re: Re:7 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
… and of course the first comparison you make is terrorists blowing stuff up.
See, stuff like this is why I find it impossible to take you at all seriously, and instead consider you a poe. The ideas and examples you put forth are so ludicrous that I find it rather difficult to believe for one second that you’re actually making them honestly, as opposed to simply throwing out the most insane stuff you can think of simply to get a reaction.
Re: Re: Re:5 "They have a splinter." "Remove the leg" "But-" "All of it!"
So does that mean you think that the small fraction of infringing videos on YouTube and friends is why they are so successful, as opposed to the huge volume of videos that are non-infringing new works? Often the successful YouTubers befriend talk to and cooperate with other that have similar interests.
Do You know why Linux dominates the server and supercomputer market? Hint, is is nothing to do with keeping control over the code, or infringement, but rather because Linus welcomed assistance from anybody who could produce decent code.
Are you getting the idea yet, people and groups succeed by cooperating, and not by owning ideas.
Also, have you not noticed that those pushing for these laws do not create new works, but rather gain control over the works of others as publishers, and that means they gain the bulk of the profit. Think of the starving artists is their favorite war cry, but they omit to mention that they keep those artists starving by limiting who get published, and using accounting tricks to keep most of th profit from an artists works.
Your software might succeed if you hand it over to a company that is good at publishing, but don’t expect to get rich doing that.
Re: Companies can always limit their market size
Companies can always limit their market size
That explains why you limited your advertising to two buses.
You can also always limit your compensation. Two buses worth is not going to get you six million dollars in money or mansions no matter how much you actually want to masturbate to the thought.
> What you are ignoring is that there is no way that enough companies can hire enough people to vet what the general public wish to publish.
publishing operation was always meant to be exclusive to filthy rich people. Originally the king published announcements about the laws that general public would need to follow.
Now EU is taking the position of the king, and publishes laws like GDPR which will control the market and general public enough that they would stop wanting to do publishing themselves.
Re: Re:
So what you are really claiming is that publishing should be limited to corporations so that the rich can grow even richer. How selfish of you.
Re: Re: Re:
Consistent though.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
I was talking about you actually, and yes, predictable would also apply.
Remember, copyright originated in Europe.
Some things never change.
Abolish copyright.
EU Copyright Proposal That Would Destroy Internet Memes Being Pr
Are They MAD?
The Memes Industry Is Very Big
Some Think New Happen
? They Are Made I Think
It might be better for US based companies if they installed filters that prevented EU social media being viewed in the US and US social media being viewed in Europe.
The other option appears to accept that the EU is going to apply EU law to US companies.
Need a new WWW error code...
The ID10T code.
Whenever someone from any of the EU countries tries to hit a website outside of the EU, they see the following.
Error: ID10T
Due to your government being made up from the largest known brainless pool of entities, this site is no longer accessible from anywhere within any country that is a member of the EU.
If you don’t like that, then go find your EU brainless representative and give them a piece of your mind.
If sufficient intelligent people do this, then perhaps the EU brainless can achieve true sentient status.
Re: Need a new WWW error code...
As if non EU politicians have taken the high road.
Not about helping creators - about hurting free-riders
Article 13 reflects a certain mentality about intellectual property that we see a lot of in Hollywood.
It’s envy, not greed. Greed, we could live with.
If it was about helping creators get paid, use that doesn’t harm, or actually increases the market for the original – would be exempt.
It’s about hurting anyone who hopes to benefit – even in the form of a few laughs from friends – without paying.
Envy, not greed.
It’s a lot like those in politics who are more interested in hurting the rich than in helping the poor.
Despicable human beings.
Re: Not about helping creators - about hurting free-riders
A lot of these efforts are bout making it more and more difficult to self publish, by piling costs onto the platforms that enable self publishing, and using laws to try and force them into examining every submission before it is allowed to be published. That way it will cut the flood of self published works to a trickle.
It is all about crippling the competition, because when you make a living by gaining control over the works of others, anything that allows those creators to escape your control reduces your control over the market, and needs to be destroyed.
“But what if you post a photo to Instagram of someone standing in a room that has a copyright-covered photograph”
Oh crap, its the visual version of the dancing baby DMCA all over again