March 3rd: Upload-Free Leica Forum / Article 13

[LUF Admin]

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Dear non-German speaking Leica Forum members,

March 3rd will be the Leica Forums „Upload-free Sunday“ – and here's why:

Next Sunday (03/03) the Leica Forum will …

• accept no new image uploads and
• show no images

This is my attempt to demonstrate the consequences of new EU copyright legislation which will have for our Leica Forum and all discussion boards in the EU.

Here is some background:

A new EU copyright directive is about to be adopted. After long negotiations, we have now a final draft, which can have dramatic consequences for our forum.

The goal of the directive was to modernize the copyright and u.a. secure fair incomes for authors such as journalists, photographers, filmmakers and musicians. To be clear: We support this goal in every possible way as a lot of our members are professional photographers.

However, the planned measures would have massive consequences for discussion forums - including our Leica Forum - up to closure:

• We would have to obtain license agreements "with all rightholders" without it being clear who these rightholders are. All photographers and musicians of the world? All publishers, music and film studios? All artists and architects?
• Since this is impossible, we would have to check all your posts (texts and images) by so-called upload filters for copyright infringements before they are published. This is technically impossible, extremely prone to error and can easily be misused by cautionary or authoritarian governments.

For me as a forum operator that means ...

• Unpredictable license costs for licenses that we do not use
• Payments for these upload filters, because this is far beyond our technical skills
• Massive liability risks and years of legal uncertainty

For you as members, the new directive means 

• that you are put under general suspicion of copyright violations and
• every post must be reviewed.

If your contribution is rejected by the filter, you have the option to contact a complaint office which may answer your complaint after some months...

In short: Leica Forum discussions will become almost impossible.

If you want to keep the Leica Forum in its present form, please help us!

If you are an EU citizen:

• Speak to your MEPs and express your concerns - by phone, email, Twitter or Facebook. Tell them about you, your hobbies and how this would affect you.
• Join the protests on March 23! There are numerous demos registered EU-wide, also in your area - dates below or here at SaveTheInternet

If you don't live in the EU: Please bear with us…

I'll do everything to keep the Leica Forum afloat - and I need your support to do so.

Thank you

Admin Andreas

PS.: Most of you know me for some time. Political discussions are banned from the forum and my personal opinion doesn't have any influence how I run this forum. But the new EU copyright directive jeopardizes my discussion boards and my economic existence.