The Gang of Five
Important Announcements => Announcements => Topic started by: rhombus on September 13, 2018, 12:54:33 AM
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The following statement was approved by the active admin staff:
As many of you may know, the European Parliament has just approved Articles 11 and 13 of their Copyright Directive. Though this poses no required changes for our forum (thank goodness that our new server is in Texas) it does mean that the forum might need to take proactive steps in the near-future in order to allow our European members to still access our content. As of right now a lot is in flux and the directive still needs to be approved by "trilogue" (which will probably be a mere formality) in the Spring, but we admins wanted you all to know what this Directive imposes on Internet content, and what we are considering doing to prevent Europeans from losing access to our content.
The changes to European Internet law imposed by the Directive are both far-reaching and uncertain in their implementation at this time. Among other things the Directive authorizes a “link tax” where Google, Facebook, and other content providers would be required to pay a tax on links to news articles. In addition to that imposition, the upload filter section of the legislation requires that all platforms aside from “small/micro enterprises” use a content ID system to prevent any copyrighted works from being uploaded. Sites can be subjected to copyright lawsuits in the event that something makes it past the filter. Remixing, meme-making, sharing of works in the public domain, and other fair use practices would likely all fall victim to platforms that would rather play it safe, just say no to flagged content, and avoid legal battles. Additionally, as an EU lawsuit filed today against YouTube for extremist videos indicates, the EU assumes that a sensible timeframe for removing ‘problematic content’ is one hour. I repeat: one hour. Finally, websites that defy this legislation might be required to be blocked by Internet Service Providers in a resolution also passed by the EU Parliament today. And (as this forum has no intention of obeying this asinine and statist restriction on personal freedom) that means this forum might be blocked in parts of Europe after this Directive is passed.
We admins condemn in the strongest possible terms this legislation and the greed and ignorance that led this to even being considered as public policy. We think that the changes it mandates will fundamentally damage freedom of expression on the Internet and that is antithetical to the open discourse that the World Wide Web held as its greatest promise for the world. We encourage our European forum members to protest this decision using all lawful and peaceful means, and to do their part to try to kill this Directive when it is brought to the final vote in March.
In the meantime, rest assured that we admins are considering possible options to allow our European members to bypass any European website filters. We have a few options in active consideration and we will be using the winter to test these options. We will not impose any content restrictions on our European members, and we will not comply with this Directive. We are committed to keeping only the United States First Amendment and the rules of the forum as the only content restrictions on this forum.
Thank you all for your time. Feel free to ask any questions or to share your thoughts in this thread, but please keep it civil. We will answer any questions to the best of our ability.
The Gang of Five Admin Team
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what a bunch of retarded a*******. Excuse my language please. Never been more ashamed of european politics. **** them all...
As if we didn't have enough problems to keep this forum online and accessible for everyone... :(petrie
Rhombus: two minor edits for language
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It is indeed ridiculous. Wikipedia is gonna collapse (and possibly Wikia/FANDOM too, which is where the LBT wiki is located) in March if Article 11 and 13 are enacted.
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This is completely preposterous, and I feel as if I'm wanting to question the sanity of those in the EU parliament. What the hell is their problem!? I mean, first we Americans had to deal with the unfortunate loss of net neutrality, and now this stupidity with us potentially losing the freedom in being able to post whatever we want! What's the point in there being an internet at all if this parliament wants to take our freedom away!? Because I have this strange fear that this will not only affect Europe, but it might result in the death of social media and the World Wide Web as we know it. It's called "Freedom of Expression." It's what makes us who and what we are in social media, and these nutcases in the EU parliament need to understand that we don't need this directive to potentially destroy all of that! This directive is a violation of human rights, and we cannot let this destroy our freedom!
Call me insane if you want, but I had to let it out. These kinds of things can really anger me.
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They've been approved but not passed, but after seeing dubious laws being repeatedly trying to be passed these past two years (why is net neutrality trying to be passed multiple times in a row?) I'm going full pessimist and assume the worst.
And the worst is absurd. Loss of freedom of switch. They have a kill switch in their hands for anyone in the EU. When they tried to approve Articles 11 & 13 two months ago people threw a storm but it looks like it still made it this time.
Also more than one has turned to VPNs or proxies to circumvent blocked sites but dammit it should not be a norm just to get around it.
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Well, if this passes, I'll have to spend money on a good VPN.
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I deeply regret to inform you all of this news, but I just found out on CNN Business that they passed it. :(
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I deeply regret to inform you all of this news, but I just found out on CNN Business that they passed it. :(
This can't be happening... That's it. I've had enough of EU. Can we shut it down now? :opetrie
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That's it. I've had enough of EU. Can we shut it down now?
My thoughts exactly. EU has always been absolute trash and it has already proven to be beyond repair. I just pray that laws like these are going to make more people realize that as well.
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That's it. I've had enough of EU. Can we shut it down now?
My thoughts exactly. EU has always been absolute trash and it has already proven to be beyond repair. I just pray that laws like these are going to make more people realize that as well.
I hope so too. How much do we have to take before people finally realize that EU is only harming us...
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Unfortunately the EU has ratified both Article 11 and 13 today. This decision will have far-reaching implications in terms of how the Internet works in the EU, and will probably affect some of the baseline policies in how social media websites and video-sharing websites handle copyright claims. Although we think that it is unlikely that the Gang of Five will be affected by any EU-wide firewall we do wish to reiterate some options that are available to our European members in the event that the Gang of Five becomes unavailable to you at some time in the future.
First, it would be a good idea to bookmark this website both in terms of its domain (gangoffive.net) and direct IP address (http://23.254.247.230) just in case for whatever reason one or the other is blocked. Second, in the event that your favorite sites are blocked (including this one) it would be a good idea to use a VPN in order to bypass any such EU-wide filter. We hope that such measures do not become necessary, but it is a good idea to be prepared for such an eventuality. In any event, rest assured that the forum will remain as its server is in Texas and thus is not subject to EU regulations. As we have said previously, we will not impose any content restrictions on our European members, and we will not comply with this Directive. We are committed to keeping only the United States First Amendment and the rules of the forum as the only content restrictions on this forum.