@Jofiel: Hi, the role of Poland in the copyright debate is extremely important. In July, when the European Parliament rejected the fast-tracking of the upload filters and link tax, all but 3 Polish MEPs voted against. If it had not been for the excellent mobilisation of activists in Poland that led many Polish MEPs to change their minds, we would have already lost the vote in July. wykop has beenPokaż całość

@Tom_Ja: On the link tax, there is a pretty sensible alternative on the table that would make it easier for press publishers to go against websites that rip off entire articles, because the articles are already protected by copyright today, but it can be difficult in practice for the publisher to enforce the rights of the original author. I have published this alternative proposal here: https://juliareda.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/reda-compromise-11.pdf explanation here: https://juliareda.eu/2018/06/the-internet-after-axel-voss/ ThisPokaż całość

@Tom_Ja: The worst threat for Wikipedia right now is probably the link tax, because it will require all online services (also a nonprofit like Wikipedia) to pay for linking to news articles. Wikipedia uses thousands upon thousands of links to news articles as references. Even if some of these links would be legal under a copyright exception like quotation, every single one of them would have to be checked andPokaż całość

@amaru-szakur: Article 11 would harm media plurality in multiple ways. It would make it very difficult and expensive to run a news aggregator, fact checking site or any similar service that provides access to multiple points of view. Platforms like Wykop, Facebook or Twitter would need to negotiate licenses before being allowed to include quotes or images in links to news sites. Both of these measures will disproportionally negatively affectPokaż całość

@wigr: I think that the link tax is dangerous for all media companies, large and small, but more so for small ones, yes. If the link tax is adopted, websites will no longer be allowed to link to news articles without asking permission from the publishers. Publishers who support the link tax claim that websites will be so crazy about their content that they will pay whatever fee they setPokaż całość

@Tom_Ja: I assume you mean their version of Article 13: It was very badly drafted: Many academics commented on it saying that it was impossible to interpret from the Commission proposal what exactly a platform would have to do in order to comply with the law. It said that you have to use measures "such as" upload filters, but never said what other measures might be acceptable. Since upload filtersPokaż całość

@Tom_Ja: We want to improve the law so that it does not require upload filters or a "link tax". Several other provisions of the directive are good, such as making it easier for museums and archives to digitize their collections.

@Mesmeryzowany: I think the difficulty with this is that the current copyright law is already terrible and everybody is breaking it on an everyday basis. The idea that the mere act of copying requires permission simply does not work very well in the Internet environment, where every use of technology automatically creates a copy. So I am convinced that in the long run, we will need a more fundamental copyrightPokaż całość

@KolejnyWykopowyJanusz: I don't think it's likely at this point, we should fight to prevent the bad parts and make it better!

@Werdandi: It is exhausting at times, and I also understand that asking people to protest again and again when they have to work regular jobs and cannot spend all their time fighting this fight is really asking a lot. I am hopeful though that we will win this fight, because my experience is that the most outrageous proposals to break the Internet tend to come from older people (with aPokaż całość

@Tom_Ja: The European Parliament is split almost 50:50 down the middle. In the first copyright vote in July, 318 voted in favour and 278 voted against. another 155 either abstained or did not vote at all. That means that the final outcome is entirely dependent on which camp can convince those 155 people who may not have made up their minds yet. There are very vocal groups on both sidesPokaż całość

@Quelaag: Free Software is great. I’ve convinced the EU to invest over 1 Million Euro into the security of Free and Open Source Software
https://juliareda.eu/fossa/

@Tom_Ja: Copyright law is not usually a topic that gets people to protest in the streets. In general, the public rarely gets involved in the debate about EU laws while they are still being negotiated, because the national media hardly ever reports on the EU legislative process in detail. The ACTA protests were an amazing exception! Given that, I think it was remarkable that actions and protests took place inPokaż całość

@James_Owens: Yes!

@Tom_Ja: First of all, I think that the metaphor of stealing is entirely inappropriate for copyright issues. If you steal something from somebody else, that person does not have it any more. But if you make a copy of something from somebody else, you both have it. I think that it's more productive on focusing, like you say, on way to make sure that authors get paid fairly, not toPokaż całość

@jakub-mamczyk: What will happen will depend on whether the people in Europe keep up the pressure on their representatives to reject upload filters and the “link tax”. You can call your MEP for free using this tool: https://pl.saveyourinternet.eu (in Polish!)

@a-lexis: I remember organising a protest against ACTA in the summer of 2010 in Berlin and there were about 20 people there. We won in the end. I don't think it's time to throw up our hands in desperation and give up now, of all points, after we have actually won the first vote in July, which nobody expected! The supporters of link tax and upload filters are certainly afraidPokaż całość

@kszyszteex: I think it works to our overall benefit and should be improved, not destroyed.

@onionhero: I think blockchain applications like cryptocurrencies have huge downsides, for example the power consumption, privacy issues, or that they can easily be stolen. Maybe in the future there might be ideas how to fix those problems.

@FilozofujacaCalka: 1. I don't think there should be a penalty for downloading. I think copyright law should be changed in a way where only making available copyrighted content to other people should be illegal, but the copying itself should always be allowed. Copying is simply a technological process that is necessary for too many useful applications to make it subject to permission. The penalties for uploading should depend a lotPokaż całość

@Atrrhitt_Vilbrore: Yes, unfortunately. The level of income is still generally lower in the East than in the West and there are questions that haven't been resolved, even though the fall of the wall is going to be thirty years ago soon.

@wigr: I think you are absolutely right! There already is robot.txt, which allows publishers to prevent the automatic scraping of their websites. This way, they can make sure that they don't show up in search results or limit the amount of text that can be copied to the search index. Since publishers are primarily asking for the link tax because allegedly the links on Google and Facebook are harmful toPokaż całość

@SaveznaRepublikaJugoslavija: No cześć, wybaczcie nasz słaby polski.

@Hombre_Muerto: Lidia Geringer de Oedenberg and Michał Boni have been important allies in the fight against upload filters and the "link tax".

@wigr: The link tax was invented by German publisher Axel Springer, and they have been the loudest voice lobbying for it as well. I have written about the reasons why here: https://www.wykop.pl/link/4498527/comment/57947557/#comment-57947557 Recently, news agencies have also started lobbying very heavily for the link tax. This could be because the news agency is usually built on newspapers subscribing to the agency service and then getting very up-to-date short news reportsPokaż całość

@lukasz-vall: Salary of MEPs
MEPs, in general, receive the same salary under the single statute which came into effect in July 2009.
The monthly pre-tax salary of MEPs under the single statute is €8,484.05 as of 1.7.2016. The salary comes from Parliament's budget and is subject to an EU tax and insurance contributions, after which the salary is €6,611.42. Member States may also subject the salary to national taxes. ThePokaż całość

@CzerwonyIndyk: Salary of MEPs
MEPs, in general, receive the same salary under the single statute which came into effect in July 2009.
The monthly pre-tax salary of MEPs under the single statute is €8,484.05 as of 1.7.2016. The salary comes from Parliament's budget and is subject to an EU tax and insurance contributions, after which the salary is €6,611.42. Member States may also subject the salary to national taxes. ThePokaż całość

@veker: Salary of MEPs
MEPs, in general, receive the same salary under the single statute which came into effect in July 2009.
The monthly pre-tax salary of MEPs under the single statute is €8,484.05 as of 1.7.2016. The salary comes from Parliament's budget and is subject to an EU tax and insurance contributions, after which the salary is €6,611.42. Member States may also subject the salary to national taxes. ThePokaż całość

@TheRealMikz: Big corporate lobbies are demanding upload filters and the "link tax", hoping to make additional profits and gain more control over the web, after missing out on much of the digital transformation. Publicly, they claim these laws are necessary to protect European cultural industries from exploitation by foreign internet platforms. The link tax is even supposed to single-handedly "save journalism".

This message gets some politicians’ attention, because these arePokaż całość

@Pauson: I reject the term "intellectual property", because I think it is wrong to treat ideas like property. Still, my goal is not the complete abolition of copyright law or patent law, but to bring them more in line with the public interest. For patent law that would mean shortening the term of patent protection and allowing more exceptions to overwrite them, especially for public health reasons. It's unacceptable thatPokaż całość

@WodzNaczelny: There is no formal association between the Pirate Bay and the Pirate Party, but they certainly have similar rules. The first Pirate Party was founded in Sweden and in the early days, the Pirate Bay was run by idealists who were very much supportive of culture and had close ties to the Swedish arts and political scenes. Nowadays, I don't think that's the case any more and I amPokaż całość

@randomname: Thank you for your question in German! In order to include also those who don't speak German, I will answer in English, I hope that's okay:

Even though Copyright law is not typically a topic that gets people to protest in the streets, the turnout was really good. In general, the public rarely gets involved in the debate about EU laws while they are still being negotiated, because thePokaż całość

@fAzI: not yet, let's keep fighting to make sure we don't!

@jestem_na_dworzu: See my response here: https://www.wykop.pl/link/4498527/comment/57949771/#comment-57949771 To add to that, while I don't agree with how the Pirate Bay is run today, I do think there should be file sharing platforms available to people, and there are many legitimate uses for them. Many of those legitimate uses are even legal. But even some uses that are not legal are still fair, such as Sci-Hub, which is an illegal platform forPokaż całość

@Alkreni: Currently, the European Parliament is not like national parliaments - it cannot propose laws by itself. The initiative for new law is always only with the European Commission. The Commission can be thought of like a body of specialists that work on their areas of expertise. They are supposed to identify where the EU needs new legislation, for example when Copyright should be harmonised across EU Member States. ButPokaż całość

That’s all from me for today! Sorry for not getting around to answering all the questions. If you have any further burning questions, feel free to reach out to me directly.

If you want to help stop upload filters and the link tax:
- Call your MEP using this free tool (in Polish!): https://pl.saveyourinternet.eu
- Check http://www.stopacta2.org for more
- Tell yourPokaż całość