Oh, and to infuriate the undecided people a bit, hereâs an âinterestingâ update from the one-and-only Pirate Party member in the European Parliament. Axel Voss is the EUâs head negotiator of the copyright reform and member of German party CDU.
1 Like
So much for the âchurch/state wallâ that is supposed to exist in news orgs.
2 Likes
And it gets better, apparently they moved stuff around and the article 13 text is now embedded in a different article (17 I think)
From four hours ago:Thanks for alerting us to this @matthias! May I suggest a black out profile image as a marketing strategy to raise awareness? Just place a black profile image or image on your feeds?
1 Like
really too pathetic - esp if such strategies work, though!
Newest updates: todayâs demonstrations in Germany had 100,000 participants combined (from here, so far unconfirmed).
And now a guy called Daniel Caspary, member of the European Parliament for German party CDU/CSU, told a German newspaper in relation to the demonstrations and protests: âWhen American corporations with massive use of disinformation and paid protesters try to prevent laws, our democracy is under threat.â 
Which was then spread by the official Twitter account of the CDU/CSU faction in the European Parliament:
https://twitter.com/CDU_CSU_EP/status/1109467763825889281
I donât even âŠ
Relevant to the ECâs NGI (Next Generation Internet) project in that whatever they decide to do, it will be friendly to the interests of European corporations.
so⊠what is now the scoop? did anyone make a black profile pic?? what is the us disinfo campaign story, really?? ? (a bit confused nowâŠ) ciao for now!
Now that everything has been said and done by the People without power, we have to wait until the vote next Tuesday. I already have a morbid curiosity to know if they will dare to vote this law through.
About the German CDUâs allegation of a U.S. led disinformation campaign to influence the vote: pretty sure thatâs only their conspiracy theory mindset. They did not present any facts beyond that Google has donated >7 million USD over the last 10 years to Wikipedia, and correlate that with Wikipedia blacking out.
That low amount of facts did not prevent them from double down on their claims. Today Elmar Brok, a German CDU member of the European Parliament, lamented a âmassive and algorithmically controlled campaign of the large Internet comaniesâ against the copyright reform (source).
(As for me, Iâm against the upload filter and mandatory licencing regulations because as a website operator who does not want anything to do with anyoneâs copyrighted content, I donât want them to impose any rules, work or expenses on me operating a website.)
1 Like
yes, we are stuck waiting now, and hoping the politicians arenât too much like the current american model 
. sigh⊠Of course, for your average âfree internetâ user, to implement those filters would be quite a disincentive to continuing - cutting further into personal liberties. (Google donating to Wikipedia makes sense to me, but you can see how a certain mindset could take that in a negative wayâŠ)
ciao for now!
1 Like
Vote results: adopted with 348 in favour, 274 against.
Time for Edgeryders to think about dismantling hosting anything in the EU, founding a subsidiary company in a progressive country like Nepal, and moving the hosting there. âDemocracyâ, my ass.
4 Likes
ooph.
tough hit â hmmmm
will they have bot enforcement strategies already up soon???
people talk about Estonia for registering cos.
is Nepal the best option for hosting??
donât lose hope! 
1 Like
Get oneâs house in order. But also step up the fight for everyone to have a house where they live imo.
1 Like
Oh, sure. Underground houses for everyone then. As in, itâs time to revive independent encrypted cyberspace.
Not yet, nothing will happen immediately. In the next two years, EU national governments have to translate the ruling into national laws.
Not at all, I guess. I was making a serious joke that now any low-infrastructure nation is on the verge of offering a better environment for Internet startups than good old Europe. 
I imagine weâd register an independent subsidiary company at the district court of Dolpo, the most remote part of Nepal, not even connected to their national road network. And then, if anyone has any copyright issue with our website, welcome to sue us out there
1 Like
Hi matthias and everyone.
The Directive was Approved but there is still time to do something. But we need manpower to act!
I came up with a proposal for a plan to fight the Directive, before it gets the final approval by countries at the European Council (in 10th April, possibly?).
Check here and let me know what you think about it:
3 Likes
So the focus needs to be put on Swedish and German representatives to vote against this in the European Council.
Here is what needs to be done right now/today ahead of the Bundestag discussion that takes place tomorrow (Thursday April 4 at 17:00)
Email SPD in Brandenburg and Bremen and convince them to push SPD at the national level to vote against the copyright directive in the upcoming EU council meeting
WHY DO THIS NOW?
** They have local elections coming up in May and September respectively
** They are polling at -11% and -8% and are heading towards losses because people percieve that the SPD is weak - unable to follow their own political agenda, unable to stand up to Merkel etc. So they need to demonstrate strength and energise their members ahead of the campaigning.
WHAT TO SAY IN THE EMAIL?
** The publicly elected officials in the Bundestag, including SPD deputies, are sitting on enormous power to do good by EU citizens. Political parties who show that they can leverage that power for good rise in the opinion polls.
** One highly visible opportunity to do so is the Bundestag discussion which takes place tomorrow (Thursday 4 april 2019) at 17:00 ahead of the final approval of upload filters in the EU Council of Ministers on April 15 (where a CDU agriculture minister, Julia Klöcker, is likely to attend on Germanyâs behalf).
** If you can help get these upload filters rejected by the national SPD this could energise the party members hitting the streets to campaign in the local electoral race. As well as demonstrate strength and commitment to the principles of the party.
** Voting against these upload filters would be an opportunity to challenge the general perception that SPD, in spite of its congress decision and coalition agreement with the CDU to oppose upload filters in the EU copyright reform, is looking like it will be supporting such upload filters to placate the Christian Democrats and Chancellor Merkel. Who in turn acted from a position of weakness: Merkel decided to use ârichtlinienkompetenzâ to overrule SPDâs opposition to upload filters, since she has made a deal with France about Nordstream II according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
** Countless Europeans highly appreciative of good political leadership and you have a chance to show it. Especially when set against the chaos we see around us at the moment. We urge you to do so on behalf citizens in Germany and Europe at large.
** Kind regards,
SEND YOUR LETTER TO:
Brandenburg: sascha.aulepp@spd-fraktion-bremen.de
Bremen: Brandenburg@spd.de
NB: Make sure to be clear if you are a citizen from a different EU country than Germany and(use DeepL Translate: The world's most accurate translator for translation from your text in English/your own language) if you need it).
Also: please edit a bit so you are using your own words, not just copy paste!!
5 Likes
I made a ânative Germanâ version along these lines, with some own thoughts added to the mix. If somebody wants to re-use it, feel free:
1 Like