Re Lauren's Blog: "Why We May Have to Cut Europe Off from the Internet"

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Wendy M. Grossman" <wendyg () pelicancrossing net>
> Date: June 8, 2018 at 22:07:19 EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Lauren's Blog: "Why We May Have to Cut Europe Off from the Internet"
>
> For IP if you wish:
>
> As an American living in London and a long-time reader of Lauren's
> mailing list, I find Lauren's frequent characterizations of the EU as
> worse than Russia or China bizarre. Yes, the European Commission will
> shortly vote on a set of copyright proposals we all dislike, but they
> don't have the final say. There will be further stages of trilogue
> between the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the
> Council of Europe to agree on the contents of the final directive. If
> Lauren cares so much about this, perhaps he could help activists such as
> the UK's Open Rights Group or any of the many other groups that are
> members of European Digital Rights to formulate and advocate for better
> alternatives rather than sitting in Californnia and childishly demanding
> that 28 countries and hundreds of millions of citizens of democratic
> countries be blocked off the internet because he doesn't like their
> laws. That truly *is* censorship.
>
> There is a helpful guide to the problems with the European Commission's
> copyright proposals and what to do about them here:
> https://www.communia-association.org/2018/01/08/seven-ways-save-eu-copyright-reform-effort-2018/
>
> Lauren's other pet peeve, the "right to be forgotten" is far from
> perfect, but it *is* an attempt to redress the balance of power between
> the rights of an individual against the power of large corporations.
> It's remarkable that so many in the land of self-reinvention have so
> much trouble grasping this. Free speech is a fundamental human right in
> the EU, as is privacy as enshrined in data protection aw, and in
> right-to-be-forgotten cases the courts are asked to balance those two
> fundameental rights against each other. Isn't that what courts are for?
>
> I would have long ago emailed Lauren personally to say all this except
> that his server rejects email from my server...
>
> wg
>
>
> > On 2018-06-08 21:25, Dave Farber wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > > *From:* Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com <mailto:lauren () vortex com>>
> > > *Date:* June 8, 2018 at 3:23:17 PM EDT
> > > *To:* nnsquad () nnsquad org <mailto:nnsquad () nnsquad org>
> > > *Subject:* *[ NNSquad ] Lauren's Blog: "Why We May Have to Cut Europe
> > > Off from the Internet"*
> > >
> > >
> > > Why We May Have to Cut Europe Off from the Internet
> > >
> > > https://lauren.vortex.com/2018/06/08/why-we-may-have-to-cut-europe-off-from-the-internet
> > >
> > >
> > > It's not a joke. It's no hyperbole. If the European Union continues its
> > > current course, the rest of the world may well have to consider how to
> > > effectively "cut off" Europe from the rest of the Internet -- to create
> > > an "Island Europe" in an Internet communications context.
> > >
> > > For those of us involved with the Net since its early origins, the
> > > specter of network fragmentation has long been an outcome that we've
> > > sorely hoped to avoid. But continuing EU actions could create an
> > > environment where mechanisms to tightly limit Europe's interactions with
> > > the rest of the global Internet may be necessary -- not imposed with
> > > pleasure, not with vindictiveness, but for the protection of free speech
> > > around the rest of the planet.
> > >
> > > The EU will later this month be voting on a nightmarish copyright
> > > control scheme that would impose requirements for real-time "copyright
> > > filtering" of virtually all content uploaded to major and many minor
> > > Internet sites, with no protections against trolling, and the certainty
> > > of inappropriately blocking vast quantities of public domain and other
> > > materials, with no real protections against errors and no effective
> > > avenues for appeals. Please see:
> > >
> > >   "On June 20, an EU committee will vote on an apocalyptically stupid,
> > >   internet-destroying copyright proposal that'll censor everything from
> > >   Tinder profiles to Wikipedia"
> > >   ( https://boingboing.net/2018/06/07/thanks-axel-voss.html ).
> > >
> > > Even if this specific horrific proposal is voted down, it's important to
> > > review how we came to this juncture, as the EU has increasingly
> > > accelerated its program to become the Internet's global censorship czar,
> > > in ways that even countries like China and Russia haven't attempted to
> > > date.
> > >
> > > As far back as 2012 and earlier, in "The 'Right to Be Forgotten': A
> > > Threat We Dare Not Forget"
> > > ( https://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000938.html ), I warned of the
> > > insidious nature of content censorship schemes flowing forth from
> > > Europe, and I've consistently warned that -- like the proverbial camel's
> > > nose under the tent -- Europe would never be satisfied with any
> > > concessions offered by Internet firms.
> > >
> > > Time has borne out my predictions. In ensuing years, the EU has expanded
> > > its demands until now it considers itself in key respects to be the
> > > global arbiter of what should or should not be seen by Internet users
> > > around the world.
> > >
> > > Like other of civilization's information control tyrants, a taste of
> > > censorship powers by the EU has inevitably led to utter censorship
> > > gluttony, and the sense that "we know best what those stupid little
> > > people should be allowed to see" is as old as human history, long
> > > predating modern communications systems.
> > >
> > > European citizens are of course free to elect whatever sorts of
> > > governments that they choose. If that choice is for information control
> > > tyrants whose pleasure is to victimize their own citizens, so be it.
> > >
> > > But if Europe continues to insist that its tyranny of censorship and
> > > information control must be honored by the rest of the world, then the
> > > rest of the world will be reluctantly forced to treat Europe as an
> > > Internet pariah, and use all possible technical means to isolate Europe
> > > in manners that best protect everyone else's freedom of Internet speech.
> > >
> > > --Lauren--
> > > Lauren Weinstein (lauren () vortex com <mailto:lauren () vortex com>):
> > > https://www.vortex.com/lauren
> > > Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
> > > Google Issues Mailing List: https://vortex.com/google-issues
> > > Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
> > >         PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
> > > Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility:
> > > https://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
> > > Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
> > > Google+: https://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
> > > Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
> > > Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > nnsquad mailing list
> > > https://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad
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> -- 
> www.pelicancrossing.net <-- all about me
> Twitter: @wendyg



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