Oh, Dear. . . .

[kelly_chambliss]

Remember back in June, when we were all talking about a potential threat in the EU to fandom and to internet freedom? Here's my post about it. Initially, the threat seemed to be averted; the proposals were defeated.

I could be mis-reading, but it sounds as if those restrictive policies have been sneaked into EU regulations after all. Here's an article from The Guardian.

Please tell me I've got it wrong.

Comments

[magnetic_pole]

You know, I saw something about this over at Tumblr earlier today but couldn't follow the link to the actual news story for some reason. I'll check back here to see if others know more than I do. M.

[kelly_chambliss]

Depressing.

[tetleythesecond]

Well, for the moment it's just the EU Parliament's vote. Now the debates with the member states begin. This could take some time, and then, since it's a Directive (not a Regulation), the text needs to be transposed into 27 national laws. Tbh I can't bring myself to being that pessimistic about it. The bill does not explicitly require upload filters, and the national parliaments still have some leeway. Also some sillier bits of EU legislation have been known not to survive very long. I don't know if you remember the Directive on cucumber curvature.

I believe that the biggest danger, at least for Germans, will be the risk of getting adhortatory letters from lawyers. But for those to happen, the text has to become law first. This is different from the General Data Privacy Regulation, which took legal effect immediately after being passed by the EU Parliament. And maybe national parliaments will have more sense.

[kelly_chambliss]

Ah, this is a bit of relief. . .sounds as if there will be at least a temporary reprieve or even more.

The Directive on Cucumber Curvature. . .somehow I missed that one. But Googling it did lead me to some amusing links, including an episode of Yes, Prime Minister where the joke was that the EU decided to call British sausages "emulsified high-fat offal tubes."

[tetleythesecond]

This, then, would be one of the more sensible EU decisions *g*

Let‘s see what the national phases will bring.