Mozilla Campaign Pokes Fun At Europe’s Copyright Directive.The Next Web reports that Mozilla has launched a campaign to stop the EU’s copyright directive by using parody videos to poke fun at the proposal’s most absurd ideas like making the sharing of GIFs and memes illegal. The internet company is also encouraging users to “rebel” by posting selfies in front of copyrighted landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower to protest any restrictions on freedom of panorama. As Mozilla writes on Medium, “We’re not advocating plagiarism or piracy. Creators must be treated fairly, including proper remuneration, for their creations and works. Mozilla wants to improve copyright for everyone, so individuals are not discouraged from creating and innovating.”
The Irony Of Europe’s Proposed Copyright Directive. The real victims of the European Commission’s proposed Copyright Directive are European-based startups and businesses. That’s according to Joe McNamee from the European digital rights group EDRi who analyzed the directive, stating: “[T]he big online companies can weather more or less anything: it’s the smaller ones — particularly startups — that will have difficulties.” A Bloomberg View editorial echoes this thinking, writing that a “right to license fee” for aggregators would benefit readers, aggregators or even publishers: “News aggregators are disrupters of course, but they are also saviors: They can grow (and globalize) a small local audience. Certainly publishers have to find new ways to adapt and make a profit. Seeking protection under the guise of copyright law is not the way to do it.”
How Broad Court Orders Are Destroying The Internet. This week, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed another lawsuit. This time, they are taking on Youtube-MP3.org, a website that extracts the audio tracks from YouTube videos and allows users to download them. In Record Labels Make New Grab For Website-Blocking Power in YouTube-MP3 Suit, Mitch Stoltz with the Electronic Frontier Foundation explains how the content industry uses broad court orders to intimidate and shut down websites throughout the internet. “Left unchecked, these kinds of orders could become a mechanism whereby the content industry gets veto power over online innovation,” writes Stoltz.
No Joke: HP Locks Printers Not Using HP Ink. On September 23, Wired reported that Hewlett-Packard (HP) implemented a firmware update that locks out cartridges — other than their own. Cory Doctorow with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) explains how imposing DRM software well after a customer purchases the product is deceiving: “That’s not a property relationship. That’s a feudal relationship, in which you are a tenant of these things that you’ve nominally purchased.” EFF sent an open letter to HP, outlining how the company can take steps to make amends with customers.
Join Us On Sept. 30th At The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library! The Re:Create Coalition is proud to support the DC Public Library Foundation and encourages everyone to come out to “Uncensored: The Cocktail Party” on September 30 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. The event will celebrate creativity, diversity and the freedom to read and coincides with the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week.