Welp. I guess I'm done. · 6:51pm Sep 12th, 2018
It's been a good ride, y'all. But today, Articles 11 and 13 of the EU Copyright Directive passed with no amendments. We're likely about to see a massive purge of user-generated content if it even has a 'risk' of violating copyright due to the implementation of bots and algorithms meant to delete anything that 'could possibly' violate copyright in an attempt to keep the now-liable web platforms that host our content safe from lawsuits.
You can thank the lobbyists from the monolithic music industry and the corrupt mainstream European News organizations, as well as the old, white, fat, upper class, bourgeois, unelected, undemocratic in the EU Parliament for this.
(I'm not saying that people should go full French Revolution on Brussels but...)
Naturally, fanfiction is in the crosshairs. Seeing as fanfiction spawns from copyrighted material by nature, this entire site (as well as Fanfiction.net probably, along with Archive of Our Own, Spacebattles, and Sufficient Velocity) will likely see outright deletion or a massive purge of most of its content.
Not to mention how art hosting sites like deviantart and tumblr, image hosting sites like imgur or derpibooru, and, of course, video uploading sites like youtube will handle this.
Honestly, I don't really feel like continuing to work on fanfiction in the face of our imminent demise, so unless more information comes out protecting us or it gets repealed or something... I guess I'm done. It's been a fun ride and all, but if my content is just going to be taken down, then why even bother?
The law is supposed to go into effect in December. Who knows when they'll start pre-emptively applying the filters though.
I'll still be hanging around if people want to talk. I'll be spending the next few months frantically saving EVERYTHING I can think of off the internet onto external hard drives and shit, and that'll include fanfictions from here.
It's been fun, y'all.
Supposedly non-profit sites like FimFiction will be safe...ish. I guess the law extends to mostly sites designed to make money, and non-profit sites will be mostly protected by Fair Use. I think it is an overreaction to scrap all your projects when FimFic could be mostly unaffected. Besides, sites like SpaceBattles and AO3 mostly likely won't be deleted, as I'm fairly certain they're hosted in America, and this dumb, stupid anti-free speech law only extends to Europe.
Right now, everything is still vague to the point of opacity, and there are months of negotiations left to hammer out details. Plus, in an effort to at least look like it's not cementing the current tech giants, this doesn't apply to "enterprises with fewer than 50 employees." And I've seen at least a few indications that special exceptions were carved out for transformative works.
It's not quite the end of the Internet. Given how the EU's kicked the can down to individual countries to hash out the details, potentially leading to outright contradictory regulations, it might just be the end of the Internet in Europe. Or meme-starved neo-anarchists really will overthrow their governments. Suffice to say, it's a bit early for throwing in the towel.
I cannot wait till people start rioting about this. It would be AWESOME. Plus, rather hilarious as they frantically throw those filters in reverse and get their cabooses outa there.
This is law is an attack against free speech basically, it will never be approved by the court of superior law.
I’d wait until knighty actually says something before we make any decisions.
This is the one instance where I'm glad Trump is in office. There's not a chance he'll allow foreign powers to mess with our free internet.
I think I speak for many people when I say you might be jumping the gun. What would Somnambula think?
Please don't give up, I really enjoy your works. Maybe you can post on non-European site like Spacebattles?
Calm down about the fanfiction. The people who run these sites care more about the people than the money, I've seen some. If anything they'll most likely no longer show up in Europe but I would think they would have more dignity than to ruin years of hard work and thousands of stories over this.
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That's... not exactly a comforting sentiment for us writers living in and writing from Europe, you know?
It's worth noting that final vote still hasn't happened. There is still time to protest and maybe win some hearts and minds.
Noooo don't quit. For those of us who care about the content, we'll save it, we'll upload it to other places. There's always another website to host shit on, so don't think this "law" will kill your stories.
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Reasons why the world is curropt anyone wanna take over the world with me
Based in america