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!
I hate to say it but no. You should only contact YOUR representative.
A) Your rep might not listen but you still get on the record opposing their policies and asking them not to go through it them (and if you get enough people telling them they’re in opposition it can pressure them not to AND give them numbers to back it up).
B) Never ever ever contact someone else’s rep. They might listen and sympathize, but they probably WON’T pass along your message. They’re there to represent their constituents. In all likelihood, your message will be discarded.
C) You tie up communication channels for any of their constituents trying to contact them about policy.
I think contacting both your local MPP and the Premier as well as whoever Doug appoints as cabinet ministers will help.
The NDP may not be able to directly stop Doug Ford, but they can bring public attention to what he is doing through calling his party out in the legislature (which will get covered by the media).
Public Attention = Public Pressure = Sometimes can reverse bad decisions.
YES definitely still contact your reps. When they’re arguing against the legislation and justify their position, it helps to have a number of constituents who contacted them in opposition.
Also – guys, you need to contact your MPP when you’re aware they’re doing things you oppose. Yes, they might vote for it anyways, but you need to put pressure on them not too. It’s helped a few key votes in the US thus far. YES do so even if they’re part of Ford’s party. You need to. They need to hear ‘don’t vote for this’ most of all.
I’ve been encouraging people to contact reps about Trump for over a year and I’ve learned a few things. I’m not entirely sure how well it translates to Canada, but the general principles should still be fine.
One thing you should know is you should ALWAYS leave your ZIP code in any correspondence, whether over the phone, email, etc. This way they can confirm it’s someone who lives in their riding, i.e. someone they represent. DO NOT contact those who don’t represent you. Even if they listen and are very polite, they won’t pass it on, because they don’t represent you.
For reference –
The best way to contact a politician is to go to events or meetings where they’ll be. For obvious reasons this isn’t quite as accessible as some other options so…
Your next best option is PHONE CALLS. Their staffers will let their boss know if an issue keeps being brought up by constituents. This is the entire point of constituent affairs.
The third best chance is EMAILS OR POST CARDS. Fill up their inbox or send physical mail they can’t ignore.
At the federal or provincial or even anything higher than local level, SOCIAL MEDIA won’t work. There’s just too many constituents, too many issues and it’s not really plausible to go through ALL of it and vet that everyone’s part of your riding.
This whole “trust Tumblr blindly” thing is eventually going to kill someone, as I became pointedly aware of on one occasion I was making fun of how poorly a particular bleach-based drain declogger was working on my sink and got a chorus of really dangerously misinformed people telling me to pour vinegar in after it because all cute little cool kid diy home care blogs they’re following talk about vinegar like it it’s the big secret the cleaning companies don’t want you to know.
And I cringed knowing that someday, some Well Actually expert who read a blog article once is going to give that advice to someone who unfortunately didn’t take high school chemistry and isn’t aware that MIXING VINEGAR AND BLEACH MAKES CHLORINE GAS.
holy fucking jesus tits reblog to save a life
OK I actually got a full on A* for GCSE Chemistry and if I ever knew this I’ve forgotten it. Seriously reblog this.
Also don’t use bleach to clean up if your cat pees outside the littlerbox (or urine in general for that matter, species doesn’t really matter here I think). I did that in a small space and it took me a bit of coughing and wheezing and wanting to tear my eyes out before I went, “wait, fuck, I just gassed myself”.
Be aware of the chemicals you are using even if they are natural cleaners.
This won’t make your blog look ugly. How could you not reblog this? REBLOGGING THIS COULD SAVE A LIFE!!!
This goes for assholes, too, guys. I know a couple who went tubing once, and they had to re-air their tubes, but the guy thought it would be funny to stick the tip of the air compressor up to her bikini trunks, the air ruptured something inside her and she died within thirty minutes.
WHAT?
The thing about this? It’s in every pregnancy book I’ve read.
WHAT?????
Why is it in pregnancy books but not sex ed books?
I’m confused as shit but stay safe @ anyone who may need to read this!!
i’m confused as shit
but stay safe @ anyone who
may need to read this
^Haiku^bot^9. I detect haikus with 5-7-5 format. Sometimes I make mistakes.
Saw this somewhere else and felt the need to post it cause no one else ever really tells you this stuff
My mom never really noticed. She noticed when she was breast feeding my little brother and blood started coming out instead of milk.
My mom said she felt and saw a little lump in the shower. She was lucky enough she found it at stage 2
My mom had a mammogram. The radiologist thought the spots were just regular calcium deposits.
Turns out it was triple negative breast cancer that had spread to her lymph nods. Mastectomy, radiation and chemo saved her life.
This could SAVE a life.
dont be embarrassed to reblog, this post could be life saving
Signal BOOST and pass it on. I had a breast cancer scare before (luckily it was just scar tissue…) and information like this kept me calm and collected at the doc’s.
As a cancer patient myself, who found my own cancer through a supposed LARPing injury last year, i know how scary it is and how important it is to catch it early. Please spread this around!
listen to ur boobs
its all in the boobs
hoW MANY TIMES AM I GOING TO REBLOG THIS ! SORRY FOLLOWERS , #sorrynotsorry
Always reblog!
REBLOG,THIS COULD SAVE SOMEBODY!!! DONT BE EMBARRASSED!!!
B
Reminder that anyone who grew their own breast tissue can get breast cancer. That includes trans women, intersex peeps, and cis men who may not have been aware there could be some breast tissue in there. The only way to be sure you don’t have any at all is if you’ve had it all removed. If you’ve had tissue removed for reasons other than cancer, they likely didn’t remove all of it. If you find something weird, regardless of who you are or how you identify, get it checked out.
All of you should reblog this. Breast cancer affects everyone and there’s not enough information about it.
Blenderbender1811 on wordpress 