Articles, books, films, music everything was censored.
Even school essays could get you in trouble.
Censorship gruesomely went along for decades in the Soviet era.
Its surreal to watch how censorship is making a return in Europe.
Even the smallest ones will have to kick out users or risk the legal wrath of the copyright rightsholders.
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All in the name of respecting the copyright and the authors.
This is also why copyright is not perpetual and there are copyright restrictions.
New creativity is the authentic goal of the copyright system, and yet it gives way to profit interests.
Why would monopolists be interested in competition?
Why would the copyright incumbents be interested in new creativity and new content?
My countrymen and millions of others were stuck with a limited, censorship approved stuff.
The Beatles were censored, until they were too overwhelming.
Rocknroll and rock music was a crime, before they were too dominant to contain.
In the creative world remixing and reusing are key instruments for new creativity.
Thus, the new creativity and new content is competition for the incumbent copyright owners.
But not all is lost if you have censorship and former glory (incumbent copyright claims) at hand.
Soviets used censorship to maintain control, copyright incumbents are doing the same in the pursuit of profit.
Just disguise greed with fancy slogans like value gap and pretend to care for the poor authors.
Better yet, you may also squeeze out new competition.
Copyright incumbents are absolutely uninterested in the new creativity, because they will lose profits and control.
For now, it is driven by profits, but nobody knows where they will stop.
Digital iron curtain
The Soviet system was stopped by the people, who refused to comply.
Also, Soviet attempts to maintain control have ended in economic stupor.
In Europe we are already showing signs of digital stagnation and subdued digital content business activity.
Such ancillary copyright was originally proposed to last for 20 years.
Why not 6 months, or 3.14159265359 years?
Just so much evidence and justification are needed for the European politicians to introduce sweeping new rules it appears… Censorship and economic privileges for the few will not lead to digital prosperity.
They are the newdigitaliron curtain and a path to disaster.
Weve been there and it was not pretty.
Will the new creators have to revisitsamizdatand go underground so that create freely?
First and foremost, the authenticity of copyright has to be restored in Europe.
Authentic copyright is an instrument to promote new creativity and the digital economy.
The new copyright must be shaped not by the analogue generation.
People hostile to the digital technologies cannot be in charge of regulating digital economy.
The voice of the next generation (digital content) creators and consumers-creators must be taken into account.
Wake up Europe before we find ourselves under the digital iron curtain!
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