This may be the end of European forums...

The EU has many good reasons why you should be and stay a member!

Here, however, the (per se legitimate) interests of record labels and publishers have been put over a sensible, carefully considered and balanced reform of the long outdated copyright law.

The possible collateral damage in, for example, forums that allow uploads of photos and videos has been knowingly ignored, although all formulations testify to the fact that originally only very large providers such as YouTube, Facebook and Co. should be made responsible.

Now, however, even the tiniest forums that have existed for more than three years can practically no longer be legally operated. It seems impossible to recognize and prevent all possible violations (and be it only the avatars).
 
While I really hope this article won't be approved, it is not the end.
Code: 
All online platforms would have to install upload filters, continuously checking for copyright infringement, except under three of the following criteria:

Platform/site available to the public for less than 3 years.
Annual turnover falls below €10 million ($11.4 million).
Fewer than 5 million unique monthly visitors.
However this rules changes by country inside the EU because ... why not?
According to your article, you're ****ed up if you are in France but not in Germany. I do think that just like RGPD and CNIL, it won't apply if you are not a company. This means that as long as your forum does not generate money, you're fine.
 
Every forum, which places advertisements, no matter in which form, earns money. I also think that doesn't matter here, 3 years of existence are enough.
And Germany and France have agreed, i.e. also for German forums it will apply. Especially since the unspeakable first draft comes from a German politician.
 
Triops said:
Now, however, even the tiniest forums that have existed for more than three years can practically no longer be legally operated.
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This simply isn't true and i just FUD spreaded by activists like Julia Reda to get as much attention as possible.

Nowhere does the propsed regulation state that it would be illegal to operate a forum without making sure that every uploaded content is properly licensed (how this can be achived is left up to the owners).

It would be perfectly legal not to check uploads, the only problem would be that this puts the owner at full liability for any unlicensed content.
 
Kirby said:
It would be perfectly valid not to check uploads, the only problem would be that this puts the owner at full liability for any unlicensed content.
Click to expand...

That's it. I wanted to say "legally secure" (just checked with translator)
 
Evaelis said:
According to your article, you're ****ed up if you are in France but not in Germany. I do think that just like RGPD and CNIL, it won't apply if you are not a company. This means that as long as your forum does not generate money, you're fine.
Click to expand...
AFAIK that's wrong. If the proposal passes the european parliament it will become active for every country in the EU, no exceptions for non-commercial sites.
 
webbouk said:
Phew, looks like I'm safe on two counts ;)
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Every one of those three conditions must be met, so if your site is older than 3 years, generates less than 10M € per year and has less than 5M monthly unique users you would not be excempted.
 
Triops said:
Every forum, which places advertisements, no matter in which form, earns money. I also think that doesn't matter here, 3 years of existence are enough.
And Germany and France have agreed, i.e. also for German forums it will apply. Especially since the unspeakable first draft comes from a German politician.
Click to expand...
You can earn money, you just have to earn less than whatever is the minimum in your country to not create a company.

Kirby said:
It would be perfectly legal not to check uploads, the only problem would be that this puts the owner at full liability for any unlicensed content.
Click to expand...
Which is basically the same as you usually can't check your whole content database (especially with video support of XF 2.1). However,

195259

"best efforts to prevent further uploads"
"upon receiving a sufficiently substantiated notice"

it seems that the requirements for the first part are basically the same as DMCA req.

After reading the whole PDF, this definitely sucks. You're right, nowhere do they make the difference between an individual and a company, yet they talk about takings startups into account and discuss about Content Sharing Services as if they were companies.


195260

yeah .... riiiiiiiiiiggggggghhhht
 
Well, following all the hot air regarding the rolling out of GDPR I don't think I'll be losing any sleep on this one either.

Come to think of it, how many hundreds of website owners have been hung drawn and quartered for non-compliance of GDPR ?
Is it the same number that were affected by the Millenium Bug :D
 
Have you ever received a letter from a lawyer for a post in your forum or have you even been sued for the violations of a forum member? If not, you can still sleep a little...
 
I have actually, one a few years ago phoned me up regarding a matter of libel.
His conversation started with a brief introduction, followed by his client's complaint, and then an enquiry regarding our/my assets.

At that point I turned the tables, asked of his client's assets, his company's assets, and then informed him of a few facts pertinent to the issue and said that if the matter was not confirmed as closed within thirty minutes of the phone call ending I would instruct my solicitors to commence proceedings forthwith.

Within twenty minutes the phone rang again - the matter had been dropped.

I've also been threatened several times with legal action, and on one occasion with someone's mother :D
 
Interesting :rolleyes:. What exactly does the video of an great arsonists of the current history adds to this thread and how does it support your standpoint, which again doesn't seem to be related to this thread? But I guess I just don't understand you.

My message is not intended to demonise the EU, even if it can be understood that way. It is about what possible threat is right on our doorstep and how we forum operators in the EU can react adequately to it.
 
Briefly, laws and regulations passed by the EU (mainly it's biggest advocates) France and Germany make things difficult next to impossible for citizens to do anything which was mainly the point when laws and regulations are passed.
 
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