Our Internet is under threat! 😟 Please fight.

Oh, sure. Underground houses for everyone then. As in, it’s 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. :smile: I imagine we’d 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 :laughing:

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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:

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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 Germany’s 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 “richtlinienkompetenz” to overrule SPD’s 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!!

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I made a “native German” version along these lines, with some own thoughts added to the mix. If somebody wants to re-use it, feel free:

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We should do an open letter to them and push it out

Get their youth faction to pick it up

“Pathetic”? Wow that was a bit harsh!? It was a brainstorm idea in an attempt to help

Can we keep it positive? Yes
 and
 is always a better approach in my experience.

Nah, this is a positive place, people don’t say harsh things here generally :grin:

I think you misunderstood the threading system here: in @rachel’s post there’s a mark in the top right that she’s replying to Nadia where she said:

So threading works a bit different here than in “flat” forum threads. This is the Discourse software and they call their thread model “semi-flat”. Takes a bit to get used to it, but it’s great as it keeps the flow of a person-to-person conversation while allowing to refer to what people say by replying or quoting. (Admittedly, it would have been more clear if Rachel had used a quotation, but we’re all still getting used to it I guess 
)

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feeling hit by some dynamite! yes, indeed, thanks for your chivalry @matthias - of course it was in response to Nadia’s comments that I used that word
 Still, one should acquire some experience with the system before going directly to scolding imho. (but I will try to make quotes to make it clearer, I guess, as seems useful). in terms of our digital selves, and needs to follow new upload filter laws at some point, I just found this article and guess it is of interest Privacy and Cybersecurity Are Converging. Here’s Why That Matters for People and for Companies.
are cybersecurity and privacy converging? wdyt??

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While we’re at it, here’s a new threat to the Internet:

A dangerous combination of bureaucrats with not the hint of an idea what which part of the Internet is for, and nation states and the EU trying to usurp regulatory power over the Internet. Or, at second thought, trying to imitate China’s Great Firewall.

now I have to look up the Prelinger Archive!!

obviously those french officials need a talking to! :wink:

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