5 ms·

>with this new revelation, I'm forced to move abroad with my company. Can you elaborate why that is?

by cr1895 8y ago

koonsolo 8y ago
Right now, when one of my users uploads copyrighted material, I can take it down when I see it. Or when I get a complaint (DMCA takedown). We're taking about teenagers here, so it's not always clear to them that they cannot use ripped sprites from other games, or music, or whatever. Basically I can make the uploader responsible for what they upload. The secondary problem is that my biggest competitor also has a lot of copyrighted material, so I'm already very careful with that not ending up on my platform. With this new law, anyone can sue me if there might be some sprite on there that they created. If I was my (non-EU) competitor, I would anonymously upload some of my own content to sue the EU company. Basically I'm a sitting duck. I'm currently working on my platform alone, so implementing a filter is impossible. Even with a big team it would be impossible, since slightly modified sprites are derived works and so also copyrighted. But if I'm outside of the EU, I can just block that region (not the biggest one anyway, and after the UK leaves, not a single native English speaking country in there). If I get a competitor from the EU in the far future, I just do the upload & sue trick.
- ivolimmen 8y ago
  Your platform needs to make at least x million a year and have userbase of x million and exist for at least x years. Only then the filtering is mandatory...
  - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
    Where does it say that, could you cite the legislation in this please?
  - dvdkhlng 8y ago
    I think that is x million _OR_ exist for at least x years, where x is 10e6 € resp. 4. [1] https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Mandate-Romania-February-8.pdf https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Mandate-R...
  - koonsolo 8y ago
    That is exactly the whole vibe I get from EU regarding startups: "Think small"
- toyg 8y ago
  > after the UK leaves, not a single native English speaking country in there Oi! Ireland and Malta would have a word with you, mate. > I can just block that region (not the biggest one anyway Not the biggest, but the richest.
  - friedman23 8y ago
    Europe is not that valuable a market for advertising platforms. There is a reason why companies choose to monetize the US first before even attempting to monetize internationally and that is because US advertising revenue per impression is almost 3x what you can get in Europe.
    - toyg 8y ago
      I'm not arguing with that (I would also add that language fragmentation is still a problem). But it does not justifies incorrect blanket statements like above.
    - inetknght 8y ago
      That's not a bad thing.
  - purrcat259 8y ago
    Nice to see Malta remembered for once :)
  - sarcasmOrTears 8y ago
    If it keeps going like this the EU is gonna waste all its capital and become poor. Yeah, it looks like economy is still running, but you can't escape the laws of economics. Many don't see it because they're not into politics, but the EU, Germany, France, Italy are making an article 13 for all kind of industries, every day. Eventually you run out of capital (including willpower and time) and a slow descent become a collapse. Of course since I'm just a nobody on a forum what do I know.
    - LoSboccacc 8y ago
- richrichardsson 8y ago
  > If I get a competitor from the EU in the far future, I just do the upload & sue trick. Pretty scummy behaviour :(
  - groestl 8y ago
    But a great idea to apply to all the websites of Article 13 supporters.
- meshman 8y ago
  > But if I'm outside of the > EU, I can just block that > region. This kind of behaviour is going to lead us to having two seperate internets. > Not the biggest one anyway True, but does it need to be the biggets to be valuable. > not a single native English speaking country in there Except there are native english speaking countries in there, and besides, europeans can very often (region dependent) read/write english anyway. Also, do you just not want to support none english content? What about spanish speaking Americans? I also think you'll lose many users in other eurasian countries that use an anonymising network and have exit nodes in the EU.
  - koonsolo 8y ago
    > This kind of behaviour is going to lead us to having two seperate internets. No, EU kind of behavior does, just like China behavior. > True, but does it need to be the biggets to be valuable. I have lots of users in US, Australia, New Zealand, various Asian countries, and UK. Focusing on them allows me to skip translations. > europeans can very often (region dependent) read/write english anyway. As a European myself (Belgian), I know this very well. The Netherlands and Flanders are probably leading in this. But the bigger countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain prefer translated software. Just look at the dubbed movies they watch. It's a lose situation anyway for me, there is no question about that.

>with this new revelation, I'm forced to move abroad with my company. Can you elaborate why that is?

by cr1895 8y ago

>with this new revelation, I'm forced to move abroad with my company. Can you elaborate why that is?

Right now, when one of my users uploads copyrighted material, I can take it down when I see it. Or when I get a complaint (DMCA takedown). We're taking about teenagers here, so it's not always clear to them that they cannot use ripped sprites from other games, or music, or whatever. Basically I can make the uploader responsible for what they upload. The secondary problem is that my biggest competitor also has a lot of copyrighted material, so I'm already very careful with that not ending up on my platform. With this new law, anyone can sue me if there might be some sprite on there that they created. If I was my (non-EU) competitor, I would anonymously upload some of my own content to sue the EU company. Basically I'm a sitting duck. I'm currently working on my platform alone, so implementing a filter is impossible. Even with a big team it would be impossible, since slightly modified sprites are derived works and so also copyrighted. But if I'm outside of the EU, I can just block that region (not the biggest one anyway, and after the UK leaves, not a single native English speaking country in there). If I get a competitor from the EU in the far future, I just do the upload & sue trick.

ivolimmen 8y ago
Your platform needs to make at least x million a year and have userbase of x million and exist for at least x years. Only then the filtering is mandatory...
- pbhjpbhj 8y ago
  Where does it say that, could you cite the legislation in this please?
- dvdkhlng 8y ago
  I think that is x million _OR_ exist for at least x years, where x is 10e6 € resp. 4. [1] https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Mandate-Romania-February-8.pdf https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Mandate-R...
- koonsolo 8y ago
  That is exactly the whole vibe I get from EU regarding startups: "Think small"
toyg 8y ago
> after the UK leaves, not a single native English speaking country in there Oi! Ireland and Malta would have a word with you, mate. > I can just block that region (not the biggest one anyway Not the biggest, but the richest.
- friedman23 8y ago
  Europe is not that valuable a market for advertising platforms. There is a reason why companies choose to monetize the US first before even attempting to monetize internationally and that is because US advertising revenue per impression is almost 3x what you can get in Europe.
  - toyg 8y ago
    I'm not arguing with that (I would also add that language fragmentation is still a problem). But it does not justifies incorrect blanket statements like above.
  - inetknght 8y ago
    That's not a bad thing.
- purrcat259 8y ago
  Nice to see Malta remembered for once :)
- sarcasmOrTears 8y ago
  If it keeps going like this the EU is gonna waste all its capital and become poor. Yeah, it looks like economy is still running, but you can't escape the laws of economics. Many don't see it because they're not into politics, but the EU, Germany, France, Italy are making an article 13 for all kind of industries, every day. Eventually you run out of capital (including willpower and time) and a slow descent become a collapse. Of course since I'm just a nobody on a forum what do I know.
  - LoSboccacc 8y ago
richrichardsson 8y ago
> If I get a competitor from the EU in the far future, I just do the upload & sue trick. Pretty scummy behaviour :(
- groestl 8y ago
  But a great idea to apply to all the websites of Article 13 supporters.
meshman 8y ago
> But if I'm outside of the > EU, I can just block that > region. This kind of behaviour is going to lead us to having two seperate internets. > Not the biggest one anyway True, but does it need to be the biggets to be valuable. > not a single native English speaking country in there Except there are native english speaking countries in there, and besides, europeans can very often (region dependent) read/write english anyway. Also, do you just not want to support none english content? What about spanish speaking Americans? I also think you'll lose many users in other eurasian countries that use an anonymising network and have exit nodes in the EU.
- koonsolo 8y ago
  > This kind of behaviour is going to lead us to having two seperate internets. No, EU kind of behavior does, just like China behavior. > True, but does it need to be the biggets to be valuable. I have lots of users in US, Australia, New Zealand, various Asian countries, and UK. Focusing on them allows me to skip translations. > europeans can very often (region dependent) read/write english anyway. As a European myself (Belgian), I know this very well. The Netherlands and Flanders are probably leading in this. But the bigger countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain prefer translated software. Just look at the dubbed movies they watch. It's a lose situation anyway for me, there is no question about that.