The EU Copyright Reform Proposal including the controversial article 11 and 13 has been approved today. Here’s what we can do to prevent this law from actually being passed.
So first of all, now that it has been approved I’m seeing a lot of confusion about what the proposal actually does. You can read all of it here, but here’s a short summary of the proposal:
– The proposal was first published around two years ago. The two most problematic things about it are Article 11 and Article 13, Article 11 wanting to prevent people from using snippets of text from news articles, possibly also affecting links that contain the headline of the article; Article 13 is about using upload filters on websites with lots of user uploads to prevent copyrighted material from being posted online. This would not only affect screenshots and gifs, but also memes, music used in remixes and similar content. That’s right, if this law passes we won’t be able to post memes and similar content online anymore. (Note: Don’t worry about your fanart and fanfiction. Those won’t be taken down.) It’s not clear what kinds of websites will have to make use of those filters yet; while some sources state it will only affect big platforms like Youtube, Facebook, Flickr etc. others say it could also affect start-ups and forums who aren’t able to pay for those filters and might have to close down. (Please note that I’m no expert, so if you have anything to add/correct about my summary, feel free to do so.)
– Today, on June 20th, a parliamentary committee approved of the proposal. However, it’s not over yet. The Internet won’t suddenly “die” today. There are a few more steps to be made before this passes as an actual law. Presumably on 3rd-5th July, there’ll be a Parliament Negotiating Mandate Vote. Finally, there’ll be a final Parliamentary Vote in December. The proposal has to pass both of those votes before becoming an actual law.
Long story short: Keep contacting your MEPs. Just because the proposal has been approved, you shouldn’t stop fighting against this shit being passed. It’s not over yet. Here are some useful links:
Lastly: No, this is not alt-right propaganda. I know many of you were confused when this issue first blew up, as there were barely any reliable sources and most articles about it seemed to come from alt-right websites who used the issue to bash the EU. I fell for the rumor about the issue being faked too and was surprised to read in my local newspaper a few days ago that it is an actual issue, and now I just regret to not have done anything before the proposal passed. But as I said: It’s not over yet. We can still fight against this.
Please share this post, no matter if you’re from the EU or not. If you are from the EU, please contact your MEPs or sign the petition. Remind them on the upcoming elections May 2019 and let them know you and many, many more people care about the internet as it is right now.
Ao3 seemed pretty concerned about the Articles, based on this post they made June 8, 2018:
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OTW Legal and our allies have been active in fighting on fan-unfriendly legal proposals in the EU. Since these proposals were introduced in 2016, OTW Legal has submitted comments opposing them and has joined in calls for action against them. We’ve managed to hold them off so far and encourage some revisions, but a key vote will be happening in the European Parliament’s JURI committee on 20/21 June that could have a significant impact on the Internet and fan sites. In particular, two provisions of the current proposal would be bad for fans. Article 11 would impose a “link tax” that would make it more expensive for many websites to operate, and Article 13 would impose mandatory content-filtering requirements on websites that host user-generated content. These provisions have been hotly debated and revised a bit since the last time we reported on them. (For more on recent revisions and debates, see these discussions by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Hogan Lovells Firm) But despite revisions, they’re still bad deals for fans. Importantly, they don’t preserve the “safe harbors” that websites rely on to operate, and they don’t include user-generated content exceptions.
Without safeguards for user-generated content, Article 13 would require your favourite websites to implement systems that monitor user-generated content and automatically remove any content that could potentially infringe upon copyright, giving publishing giants the power to block your online expression. Sites like YouTube, Tumblr, GitHub, Soundcloud, etc., could be required to block the upload of content based on whether it has been “identified” by big corporations, rather than based on its legality. The law is still being debated, and it is difficult to predict how it would impact the OTW’s projects, including the Archive of Our Own, if it is passed. Regardless of how this vote comes out, the OTW will work as hard as we can to keep the Internet fan-friendly. But we need your help. The most effective thing you can do right now is contact your Member of European Parliament. You can use one of these tools to e-mail your MEP or call your MEP to tell them that having user-generated content on the internet is important to you.
Here’s what you can tell them: Without safe harbors for user-generated content, Article 13 of the Copyright Directive would stifle free expression on the Internet. We don’t want mandatory filtering. Algorithms don’t understand limitations and exceptions to copyright like parody, public interest exceptions, fair use, or fair dealing, and we don’t want our non-infringing videos, website posts and art blocked because of a biased algorithm created by big corporations. We want the law to protect user-generated works, not harm them.
OTW Legal will keep fighting for fan-friendly laws!”
So I know it’s probably been awhile since you’ve watched How to Get Away with Murder (especially considering how long these have been in my phone for).
But!! Since I knew you were a fan, I took several pics at different angles of the college “classroom” that Annalise Keating held her lectures in the show (I also have some schematics if you’d be interested in that as well)
So this is the very front of the auditorium. All of those chalk boards can be moved up and down and if you look at the top part of the wood framing them, you can probably tell that there’s an individual set of lights that shine specifically on the boards. As you can also probably tell, the eraser quality isn’t that great :p.
Here’s a shot of the center as well as left-hand front sections of seats. All the way in the back beyond the white wall you can see the back rows of seats as well as the control panel room designated by the window in the back wall.
Here’s a long-range shot of the sea of seats from the aisle separating the back rows and the main section of seats. The big screen above the chalkboards is used for projection and most often for films.
Here’s a shot that captures all the seats in the back row as well as show the aisle discussed previously. It’s also a closer view of the control booth. Those stairs off to the right can lead to the booth, the back rows or to one of the side exists/balcony that overlooks the room. There’s also another one on the side that I took the picture from.
Another long-shot, this time taken from the back rows. In this shot, you can see how the aisle allows entry to the main rows. Additionally, you can see what I meant previously about “balcony” off to the top right of the frame and which leads to an exit. Additionally beneath the balcony, you can see in the shadowed part another lower exit.
This is a shot of the ceiling. While it looks just like a checkered pattern, the white squares are in fact lower and separate from the apparent “black squares.” You can see this separation most off to the right-hand side. The ceiling itself is black in its entirety. Off to the lower right you can also catch a glimpse of the exit door.
Finally, here’s the right-hand side of the main seats located almost directly in front of the podium. That weird squaring off of the wall is in fact where the “balcony” and exit is located on this side of the auditorium.
SliceOSunshine 