DISQUS

Sozekirai · 3 years ago

Yes you can have it both ways. The only regulations for any media company should be based on limited bandwith. In the case of internet media that is not a concern. The Europeans need to speed up their suicide and finally welcome whatever rebirth comes next. Free the media! All media.

Michael Mahemoff · 3 years ago

This is odd regulation, and maybe a bit embarassing for the EU if it goes ahead. Doesn't look good when combined with the recent Google decisions in Belgium (the kind of thing that I thought was resolved in 1998) and the confusing European search engine initiative (Quaero).

"The reasoning is pretty simple: the Brits think that forcing video-sharing sites to seek licensing would prevent UK entrepreneurs from building the next YouTube or MySpace."

Yes, and the benefits are broader than just building video sites or even dotcoms. All the Gootube press has been about replacing TV, but the online video trend will have a far broader impact on society and the economy. Right now, it's hard to see that because the stereotype is a geek watching videos on his desktop monitor or squinting at a video ipod. Soon, though, it will be easy enough to watch it on a normal TV (Apple ITV, Nintendo Flash-enabled browser) and probably other dedicated wifi monitors that will come out, as well as improved wifi portable players.

For example, imagine the impact on research when a lab can immediately distribute video of an experiment to other researchers around the world. Also, the political implications of projects like webcameron, which currently seem like gimmicks to many. And then there's the Jon Udell lawnmower example - the vast majority of products or services, quite outside of IT, can benefit from instructional video, which is far more accessible than a boring old manual. A lawnmower company can show people how to use the lawnmower, troubleshoot it etc, a bank can show people how to use their website, an open-source project can show people how to get started (the legendary screencast by DHH is one reason Rails really took off). There's probably lots of other applications people haven't even considered yet.

Point being, many many sectors of society will gain from this (sorry but it truly is a) revolution, not just a couple of silicon valley boys closing out their mortgage, which is mostly how the gootube story has played out in the mainstream media.

Content regulation must be based on blacklisting in this day and age - after all, that's worked fine overall for the web over more than a decade. Forcing every publisher to sign up to a whitelist would be a major step backwards at a time when everyone else is charging forward. Classic under-utilisation of available resources.

FWIW I personally couldn't care if people call me (as a blogger) "amateur", "professional", or "the weather". Anyone who lumps all bloggers together is on the wrong train - it's not 2002 and blogging is just a tool people on the net use for whatever purpose. It would be like saying web users are geeks or mobile phone users are yuppies, which made for some fine humour in 1995, but a bit beside the point 5 years later.

Julien · 3 years ago

Maybe must we see in this initiative another proof of the growing collusion between medias and politics in Europe.
As majors do with peer to peer, classic medias see the explosion of the home-broadcasting as a threat and not as an opportunity.
Lobbying must have been strong at Brussel's.
I hope UK will help stopping this nonsense rule.

shedtroll · 3 years ago

This is SHOCKING! There maybe FCC style regulations for Video podcasters (and maybe eventully) PODCASTERS!

Mike Thompson · 3 years ago

Brussels,

Dont you DARE limit this to only those that could afford your licence.

You do not have a valid reason.

I cannot broadcast through traditional airwaves because using non standard 'pirate' equipment could interfere with emergency services, this is a valid reason for non licencees not to broadcast on channels the masses can recieve.

There is no valid reason to stop ME from broadcasting through the internet to the masses. Life and death is NOT at stake.

In the back of my mind I think you want to limit our free speech.

If I do a good job with my video blog will I get penalised because it looks 'professional'?

I am not the BBC. Why on EARTH do you think I am? Why am I going to be treated the same?

This is DISGUSTING.

You can call me what you like, amateur, professional, whatever, but DONT YOU DARE CHARGE ME for using my RIGHT.

DONT YOU DARE.

Mike Thompson.

Keith · 3 years ago

This is the start of all trouble for Google; the same thing European rules slaps Microsoft with billion dollars fine.

John Middleton · 3 years ago

More here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6056942.stm regarding the BBC and the CBI (British business organisation) giving evidence to a House of Lords inquiry on the proposal.

Winston · 3 years ago

In preventing an attempt by the European Union to regulate the "taste and decency" of video clips distributed through file sharing websites such as YouTube, the U.K.'s media watchdog Ofcom explained that "the plan was unworkable and would stifle creativity and investment in new media across Europe."

Planned revisions to the EU's Television Without Frontiers Directive (TVWF) would have made Europe's "national governments...responsible for regulating the internet for the first time." Ofcom argued that because "internet technology does not respect borders users would simply turn instead to websites in the US and elsewhere."

The planned regulations would have done more than just turn viewers to other websites, the revised TVWF Directive would have allowed EU members to restrict distribution of videos that challenge government authority. An article in The Washington Post recently discussed the "power of amateur video...to hold the powerful to account." The article explained that Witness, a human rights watchdog, plans to launch a YouTube-like website to harness the "power of images and human stories to motivate change."

Ofcom and the European public won a major victory by blocking regulation of video distribution websites. The Orwellian-named Television Without Frontiers Directive already blocks the flow of ideas on television through broadcasting and production quotas and other regulatory requirements. It's time governments recognized that their citizens are mature enough to make their own viewing decisions. It's time for Europe to reinvigorate its people and economy by lifting existing broadcast restrictions