Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on April 11, 2002 02:35 PM
If this bill does go through, which I hope it doesn't, does anyone know what the effects will be for people living outside the US??
(I'm writing from Finland)
If the bill goes through in something like its present form, it is so cataclysmic event
that I am sure nobody can predict what exactly will happen, but based on
past precedent, I am pretty sure of one thing: lobbyists from the media
industry will do their damndenest to push laws in other countries for
hobbling technology in the same way. In the EU, they might well succeed
in getting the Commission to propose a directive about it. After all,
they could create something similar to the DMCA, and the software
patent idiocy is progressing as well in the Commission.
The Commissars are maybe not as beholden to big business as US senators, but they don't
have to be for evil to happen: EU was originally only about promoting economy at the
expense of everything else, and that clearly still shows in the attitudes of the Commission.
The only way to stop a proposal like this there would be good arguments that it harms
economy seriously plus serious lobbying by threatened industry to push that
message (forget about folk movements, they don't count in the Commission).
After that, it might be able to be blocked or mitigated in the EU parliament. It usually
has more concern for citizens' rights, but is much less powerful than the US House.
The current EU power structure is tailor-made for backroom dealing. If a directive
passes the EU parlament, the member states have no option but to change their
laws to be in harmony with it.
So I implore the good citizens of USA: Defend freedom and kill this legislative monster
before it hatches from its leathery egg, because we in the EU may not be
able to contain it afterwards.
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Re:International effects
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on April 11, 2002 02:35 PM(I'm writing from Finland)
If the bill goes through in something like its present form, it is so cataclysmic event
that I am sure nobody can predict what exactly will happen, but based on
past precedent, I am pretty sure of one thing: lobbyists from the media
industry will do their damndenest to push laws in other countries for
hobbling technology in the same way. In the EU, they might well succeed
in getting the Commission to propose a directive about it. After all,
they could create something similar to the DMCA, and the software
patent idiocy is progressing as well in the Commission.
The Commissars are maybe not as beholden to big business as US senators, but they don't
have to be for evil to happen: EU was originally only about promoting economy at the
expense of everything else, and that clearly still shows in the attitudes of the Commission.
The only way to stop a proposal like this there would be good arguments that it harms
economy seriously plus serious lobbying by threatened industry to push that
message (forget about folk movements, they don't count in the Commission).
After that, it might be able to be blocked or mitigated in the EU parliament. It usually
has more concern for citizens' rights, but is much less powerful than the US House.
The current EU power structure is tailor-made for backroom dealing. If a directive
passes the EU parlament, the member states have no option but to change their
laws to be in harmony with it.
So I implore the good citizens of USA: Defend freedom and kill this legislative monster
before it hatches from its leathery egg, because we in the EU may not be
able to contain it afterwards.
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