‘Piracy is sexy’ – Vivian Reding
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- Some 60% of 16- to 24-year-olds admit they’ve, “illegally downloaded says European commissioner for the information society and telecoms, Vivian Reding.
Citing a European Commission survey, “Piracy is increasingly being seen as ’sexy’ among young ‘digital natives’,” she says, quoted by the IDG News Service.
“Are there really enough attractive and consumer-friendly legal offers on the market?” – the story has her asking, going on »»»
Does our present legal system for Intellectual Property Rights really live up to the expectations of the Internet generation? Have we considered all alternative options to repression?
Have we really looked at the issue through the eyes of a 16 year old? Or only from the perspective of law professors who grew up in the Gutenberg Age?” Reding asked.
“Growing Internet piracy is a vote of no-confidence in existing business models and legal solutions. It should be a wake-up call for policy makers,” she told the conference hosted by Brussels think tank, the Lisbon Council.
However, if it’s sexy, it’s largely because the entertainment cartels have done for “illegal downloading” what they did for online music sharing.
Until Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music and Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney squandered hundreds of millions of dollars to publicise the activity around the world, in relative terms, very few people even knew it was possible to download an entire movie, let alone and music album.
Now, thanks to corporate efforts to suppress the activity, there isn’t anyone with a computer who doesn’t know how to download, and share, the latest feature or the latest tune.
Nor is this confined merely 16- to 24-year-olds. Kids as young as four and five are happily sharing with each other online.
But Reding wasn’t focusing on downloading: it was a hook to get her into her main message — “Europeans must have the right to control how their personal information is used.”
This was first detailed on PublicTechnology.net in April when she warned the EU will, “take action” if member states, “fail to implement EU rules ensuring privacy and the need for a person’s consent before processing his or her personal data”.
European privacy rules are, “crystal clear,” she declared, stating, “a person’s information can only be used with their prior consent. We cannot give up this basic principle, and have all our exchanges monitored, surveyed and stored in exchange for a promise of ‘more relevant’ advertising! I will not shy away from taking action where an EU country falls short of this duty.”
And now, in her weekly video message, “Do you want the internet to turn into a jungle?” she asks, declaring, “This could happen, you know, if we can’t control the use of our personal information online.”
Quick! Someone tell her about DPI, Google, Phorm, Microsoft, Yahoo, and all the rest!
She continues »»»
Now, privacy is a particular value for us Europeans; a value reflected in European laws for many years.
However, in spite of the many advantages of technological development, there is an undeniable risk that privacy is being lost to the brave new world of intrusive technologies. On the global information highways, personal information is increasingly becoming “the new currency”. And I believe that Europeans in many ways take fuller advantage of new technologies than other continents – just look at Europe’s strong broadband and mobile phone take-up. I believe that Europeans must have the right to control how their personal information is used.
Especially three technological and commercial developments have particular implications for privacy: social networking, behavioural advertisement and RFID ’smart chips’.
Firstly, social networking has a strong potential for a new form of communication and for bringing people together, no matter where they are. But is every social networker really aware that technically, all pictures and information uploaded on social networking profiles can be accessed and used by anyone on the web? Do we not cross the border of the acceptable when, for example, the pictures of the Winnenden school shooting victims in Germany are used by commercial publications just to increase sales? Privacy must in my view be a high priority for social networking providers and for their users. I firmly believe that at least the profiles of minors must be private by default and unavailable to internet search engines. The European Commission has already called on social networking sites to deal with minors’ profiles carefully, by means of self-regulation.
Self-regulation? Seriously?
“I am ready to follow this up with new rules if I have to,” she says sternly. “But only if there is no other way.”
And in another privacy concern, “repeatedly mentioned to the European Commission these days” is behavioural advertisement systems that, “monitor internet users’ web browsing to better target them with advertisements,” she says, continuing »»»
Now, European privacy rules are crystal clear: a person’s information can only be used with their prior consent. And we cannot give up this basic principle, and have all our exchanges monitored, surveyed and stored, in exchange for a promise of “more relevant” advertisement!
The Commission is closely monitoring the use of behavioural advertising to ensure respect for our privacy rights. I will not shy away from taking action where an EU country falls short of this duty.
The latest technology trend is smart chips, also called RFID, that can send radio signals, like your electronic bus pass, for example. While they can make businesses more efficient and better organised, I am convinced they will only be welcomed in Europe if they are used by the consumers and not on the consumers. No European should carry a chip in one of their possessions without being informed precisely what they are used for, with the choice to remove or switch it off at any time. The “Internet of Things” will only work if it is accepted by the people.
The European Commission takes the protection of your personal information very seriously. We all have a fundamental right to privacy, also when using new technologies. We are currently reinforcing European privacy laws with the reform of the EU’s telecoms rules, on which the European Parliament is about to vote. And we will come back with new initiatives when they are needed to ensure YOUR control over YOUR personal data, in particular in cooperation with third countries where your personal data may be affected. I finally believe that it is imperative for the next Commission, which will come into office by the end of this year, to review Europe’s general rules on protecting personal information, which date back to 1995. Such a reform is long overdue, in view of the rapid technological development.
No need to stay tuned.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
IDG News Service – EC’s Reding Calls for Shake-up of Online Copyright Laws, July 10, 2009
PublicTechnology.net – Citizens’ privacy must become priority in digital age, says EU Commissioner Reding, April 15, 2009
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July 10th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Viv, baby, dahling.. downloading is NOT illegal, this just shows how effective the MAFIAA’s FUD is.. /insert rolled eyes here.
Downloading is a process in which files are transferred digitally from one location to another. If said file is covered by draconian copyright, then it might be considered infringing at the very least, illegal it ain’t.
stw
July 10th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
And because of three strikes laws, /i/nsurgency is becoming not only a duty but also FUN!
July 10th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Downloading isn’t an illegal or infringing act by the downloader, but the process often involves the production of an infringing copy (on the part of the supplier of the file if they make a copy). So folk will say “Downloading is (often) illegal” (if illegal means infringing the privilege of copyright) and leave the reader to assume it’s illegal for the downloader – when it’s only a potential infringement by the unauthorised manufacturer of the copy (not the downloader).
Some people like to say downloading is a crime, which is a somewhat different claim.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
A person who has a file in there shared folder is not making the copies. Yes, they are allowing the copies to be made, but they are not making the copies. (Hence the making available crap they are trying to push down our throats). The person downloading has requested a copy of the file, and is therefore making the copy. It may be a infringinf or a non infringing copy depending on the use.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
But, the copy is manufactured by the supplier’s computer, whose owner has authorised it to do so on demand.
I agree that making available is not infringement, but at the point a file is downloaded a copy may be manufactured by the supplying computer in order to satisfy the downloader’s request.
Bear in mind that logically the downloader cannot possibly make the copy because they do not possess the original. They may assemble the copy that is delivered in pieces to them, but that is assembly, not copying.
See: http://www.p2pnet.net/story/18286