#safeharbor

‘Safe Harbor’

Hey, hi, hello. Can you please stop scrolling for a minute and read this? This affects us all, not just the people in Europe. I know that it’s a long post, but please read it and share it.

I know that people don’t like Mat Pat for various reasons, but this is serious. This is an excellent video explaining what Article 13 is and how it will affect us.

If you can’t watch the video, here’s summary of the main points and some discussion.

All websites rely on Fair Use and SafeHarbor (these are key)

The US Fair Use Doctrine allows people to use content that is not their own without explicit permission, so long as it is for review, education, news reporting, commentary, research, etc.

The US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (aka SafeHarbor) lets media companies issue takedown notices to a hosting site so that the site takes down the content. Example, Disney doesn’t like that someone uploaded the full Mulan movie on YouTube; they issue a takedown notice and YT takes the video down and issues a copyright strike to the person. However, thanks to SafeHarbor, YT isn’t responsible for the copyright infringement, only the removal of the content. 

The problem comes into play when you take into consideration that these two laws are only in the United States. In Europe, it is called Permitted Use, which means that you need a permit (or explicit permission) to use copyrighted content.

Permitted Use does not allow people to use copyrighted content unless it is for parody, quotation, private copying, and education. And these four things are it- anything that doesn’t fall under these four items are not allowed by Permitted Use.

Article 13 plans to hose the concept of SafeHarbor.

Why is this bad?

In particle 2a of Article 13, it states, “online content sharing providers and right holders shall cooperate in good faith to ensure that unauthorized protected works or other subject matter are not available on their services”. Therein lies the problem:

What does ‘good faith’ mean?

The language in a good law is purposefully very specific so that people know what it means and that there is no abuse of said law. ‘Good faith’ is incredibly vague. Does it mean that both companies agree on infringement? Does it mean that the right holder gets to boss the provider around? What does this mean?

The words ‘good faith’ can be abused so that anything vaguely infringing (example, an image of a starfish with yellow-green shorts edited on it) can be taken down because it has the potential to be infringing.

What else does this mean?

This means that if Article 13 gets finalized (it already has been passed; it needs to be finalized) the way it is written, this means that content hosting sites can only post things from the people that hold the rights. SafeHarbor will be hosed in the way that content hosting sites will be directly responsible for the copyright infringing content.

How does this relate to the US?

Here’s the thing: other countries have their own laws regarding copyright, Fair Use, and SafeHarbor. However, because of this, companies will cater towards stricter laws to avoid infringing on the stricter law. If Article 13 gets finalized the way it is, all countries will comply to Article 13 and apply it to everyone. 

If companies can take down creators in one area, they will want to take everyone down because they have that power.

So, what can we do?

The biggest point is to spread the word. The more people that are aware, the more potential there is for change. We aren’t talking about this because it’s so complicated, but once it has been simplified, it’s easier to understand and share.

Make your own content. This pairs up well with point one, but raise awareness. Show people how Article 13 is a problem with how it’s worded. 

This especially applies for those in Europe, but contact your MEPs. Find out why they support if, if they do. Convince them that Article 13, by the way it’s worded, is a huge issue. We need them to understand that’s going on and what the consequences are. Explain to them in a reasonable, logical way that the way that Article 13 is worded will cause problems. No one believes that the the creator’s rights should be infringed upon. That is not what we want. The problem is that it is too vague and unclear. Because it is unclear, media companies can, and will abuse the law to get what they want. 

We need to do these three things immediately because Article 13 has already been passed. It just needs the language to be finalized. If nothing is changed, then it could spell the end of the internet as we know it.

Please spread the word. Please boost this post, and please, please don’t let this problem die like we let Net Neutrality die. Net Neutrality likely opened the door for Article 13. Do not let this happen.

First of all, even if the UK provides adequate safeguards, which is doubtful given the GCHQ revelations over the last years, it still wouldn’t be an automatic member of Privacy Shield. It would have to formally request membership by both the EU and US. Keeping in mind that the US has proven to be considerably less forthcoming of giving the UK ‘a good deal’. 

And Secondly, by the time the UK leaves the EU, it is questionable if Privacy Shield will still exit. It offers little in improvement over Safe Harbour agreement previously overturned by the EUCJ.

What that means is that it will be illegal for any company to store sensitive data of US or EU citizens on UK soil. All data must be stored and handled in facilities in countries part of the agreement.

When times get tough, what do you depend on?

It might be money, position, reputation, friends, or family, and for many situations one or more of these may take you through some storms, but when life completely falls apart, all of these only take us so far until we are on our own.

As today̱'s scripture promises, in this life on 'This Side Of The Veil' we have a surety of solidity, that no matter what may happen, there is a promissory note from heaven for our soul, and that is only found in God.

Famous inspirational Chrisian writer Corrie Ten Boom, who was arrested for hiding Jews from the Nazis in her home and sent to a concentration camp, miraculously survived the gas chamber to go on traveling the world and speaking and being a living miracle worker. Having been through eighty years of extreme trials of faith, she once famously wrote:

“In order to realize the Worth Of The Anchor We need to feel the Stress Of The storm.”

The only strong, steadfast, safe, anchor that we can really depend on when the storms of life come is our Heavenly Father, just as 1 Peter 5:7 assures us “ Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”

Friend, the storms of life Will Come, and when they do, What will be your ANCHOR?

God Bless Your Day Jesus Loves You NotesOnLife.org

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When The Storms Of Life Come, What Will Keep You Anchored?

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