Memes and YouTube videos are *not* in its jurisdiction. Social media sites may *choose* to take down memes en masse, *pinning the blame on* the new policy, but that’s their evil, that’s a pretty common tactic that eurosceptic agents pull. In all likelihood, what will happen is things will get taken down and you’ll have to appeal to the EU *instead of* appealing to YouTube or Facebook or whatever the fuck.
Like. “Loads of people will lose their source of income!” Yeah! The social media giants *already do that to people!* They *already* discriminate arbitrarily and remove shit based on enigmatic algorithms, then take ages to listen to appeals! The EU is pissed at them for *relying on* algorithms that they never disclose! That’s what’s being regulated here!
This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened! It’s just the first time it’s happened to social media! And naturally, the social media companies are paying *a lot* of money to convince their users Article 13 will be the end of the world.
They don’t want to be regulated. They are not acting in good faith.
…come to think of it, who all actually took the time to read it over? To actually pick it apart for themselves, and understand what was really going on with it?
It’s all been one cyclical grapevine. Believing people who said this was a bad thing, spreading that idea in good faith, and not really taking the time to check the source material.
You’ll have to copy and paste this into your browser, but this’ll take you to the full text of Article 13.
“[A]uthors and performers often have a weak bargaining position in their contractual relationships, when licensing their rights. In addition, transparency on the revenues generated by the use of their works or performances often remains limited. This ultimately affects the remuneration of the authors and performers. This proposal includes measures to improve transparency and better balanced contractual relationships between authors and performers and those to whom they assign their rights.”
(Authors/performers = content creators. Users. Those to whom they assign their rights = the websites whose Terms & Conditions we literally legally sign.)
Before that, it mentions that it has identified three kinds of Internet content that should receive more protection than they currently do: Education, research, and preservation of cultural heritage.
The EU may talk old-fashioned, but they’re not stupid. “Preservation of cultural heritage” is what even the most ‘pointless’ memes fall under. (Memes aren’t made in a vacuum. They are *a new language for* culture. Europe sees a hell of a lot of that in practice.) And that’s not even getting at the memes that fall under education, or even research (think memes that compile vast amounts of information).
You’ll notice there are still some memes that would be a bit questionable here. They’re the ones that propagate hate speech, or advance political purposes. The EU is a *stickler* for those. Those will be the kinds of memes that any changes will most directly affect.
Like. I know people are afraid the EU will turn out to have the same kind of greed as American corporations do. But let me tell you: if that were the case, websites like youtube wouldn’t be so scared.
THIS IS ALSO IMPORTANT:
“Furthermore, the proposal will not affect retroactively any acts undertaken or rights acquired before the date of transposition. The transparency obligation contained in the proposal only aims at rebalancing contractual relationships between creators and their contractual counterparts while respecting contractual freedom.”
So any memes already on the Internet pre-Article 13 are *not affected*. I’ve seen the opposite being said a lot lately, and often not even by people who live in Europe?
And! Oh! Look at this!
“Access and availability of audiovisual works on video-on-demand platforms: A non-legislative option (Option 1), consisting in the organisation of a stakeholder dialogue on licensing issues, was not retained as it was deemed insufficient to address individual cases of blockages. The chosen option (Option 2) combines the organisation of a stakeholder dialogue with the obligation for Member States to set up a negotiation mechanism.”
In other words: the EU consulted the big-name corporations (like record companies) for their input, the corporations said “we should get to say if individual videos (like lyric videos) stay up or not.” The EU concluded that was not sufficient, and that instead each member state– each EU country– should have a specialised appeal process for individuals to contact if their content gets unfairly taken down.
So. Yet another common point I often see getting touted around turns out to be misleading.
And my favourite one so far, read it carefully:
“New technological developments have been carefully examined. The proposal includes several exceptions that aim at facilitating the use of copyright-protected content via new technologies. This proposal also includes measures to facilitate access to content, including via digital networks. Finally, it ensures a balanced bargaining position between all actors in the digital environment.”
Fans should be fine. If the proposal goes through, it would be easier to *access* the content we’re fans of. Cross-border region blocking is a thing the proposal addresses a lot, seeks to circumvent.
I’m gonna stop with this chain of reblogs for now. I need sleep.
Just. The EU aren’t out to get you. Not unless you’re a billionaire who’s found a way to avoid paying taxes. *That’s* who they’re out to get.
@deadcatwithaflamethrower and some more info. I personally have not done any research or reading on it, but these people have. Still plenty of room for people to concerned about loose wording that could be exploited, I think, but not as big a panic as some people make it out to be?
I think, with ANyTHING that speaks of regulating content on the internet, that its’ best to proceed with caution. But also reblogging so there is a counterpoint out there.
This is a scholarly Blog for ENGL 3605 - Theories in Ethics and Racism. More specifically about Encoding Race in Literature. It's been posted as a assignment and is being marked as one. Please keep this in mind.
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