General_Effort
@General_Effort@lemmy.world
- Comment on Reddit will block the Internet Archive 9 hours ago:
Hmm. There are many things that could cause legal trouble for the Wayback Machine. I wouldn’t jump to conclusions.
You can see on Lemmy that many people would prefer to outlaw scraping, fair use, and all that. Well, not for the “good guys” obviously, but the law doesn’t work on vibes. The IA would be legally impossible in most countries. In the EU, it would be a major crime because of copyright and GDPR. It’s only the traditional US commitment to free speech and fair use that makes it possible at all.
The IA exists in a legally precarious position. That’s not because of any shady backroom dealing. If the crowd in this community had its way, it would be gone.
- Comment on Reddit will block the Internet Archive 10 hours ago:
Other sites, eg with books and journals, are doing the same thing. They hope that they can extract more money by reducing the availability of their content.
- Comment on Reddit will block the Internet Archive 12 hours ago:
I don’t know their take-down policy. Could be privacy, could be copyright.
I think they are shielded by Section 230 under US law. That means, if they don’t do take-downs when requested, they become liable just like the original uploader. So it depends on whether they think they can defend something as fair use. IDK what they do with requests under non-US laws.
- Comment on Why using ChatGPT is not bad for the environment 13 hours ago:
I doubt it’s an honest mistake or simple hypocrisy. You can see that AI is both supposed to be useless and see hugely increased usage. Sure, people can be pretty dumb but this is really heavy.
Well, whatever the reason for this may be… You will certainly not reason these accounts out of posting this stuff with numbers.
- Comment on Why using ChatGPT is not bad for the environment 16 hours ago:
Saying it’s not bad is too strong. All human activity has undesirable side effects.
But yes. People who peddle that environment narrative are definitely not interested in improving matters.
- Comment on Lemmy be like 17 hours ago:
Yes. When I first saw it, I thought it was soppy, depressing and weird. Now I’m just wowed by the accurate portrayal of human nature.
When someone says that plants are people, they will be respected as spiritual or written off as a weirdo. Saying that animals are people make for some really contentious debates. But saying that people are people is something wars are fought over. We’ll get there once androids are enough like us.
- Comment on Reddit will block the Internet Archive 17 hours ago:
Reddit can be scraped just as much as online books and journals.
- Comment on Reddit will block the Internet Archive 17 hours ago:
Reddit is archived and available as torrent up until the API change.
- Comment on Reddit will block the Internet Archive 17 hours ago:
Technologically no. Reddit sends out the data to 10s of millions of users as part of their normal operations. They need to try to block those who collect that data for the IA. Reddit has the very short end of the stick.
The problem is that evading such counter-measures may be criminal in the US. Obviously, EU laws are much harsher.
- Submitted 1 day ago to technology@lemmy.world | 127 comments
- Comment on OKBuddyGalaxyBrain 1 day ago:
In Icelandic ð cannot be used at the start of a word
Didn’t know that. I think it was fine in Old English.
Yeah, phonetically they are different. I think they are using them correctly.
- Comment on OKBuddyGalaxyBrain 1 day ago:
ðe … þinking
You are distinguishing eth and thorn and using them correctly? I am impressed; also a bit weirded out, but really impressed.
- Comment on Lemmy be like 1 day ago:
You could have taken a screenshot from Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
It’s funny how much that movie got right. I don’t think it was meant to be predictive. Many Lemmy users will probably think it is the greatest comedy ever made.
- Comment on Upvotes and downvotes are public information on Lemmy 1 day ago:
An EU resident could sue for emotional damages under the GDPR. Or maybe just complain to data protection authorities.
One day it will happen.
- Comment on The AI bubble is so big it's propping up the US economy (for now) 6 days ago:
Lets say the beak-even cost for a single request is somewhere between $1-$5 depending on the request just for the electricity,
Are you baiting the fine people here?
- Comment on Belgium Targets Internet Archive's 'Open Library' in Sweeping Site Blocking Order 1 week ago:
Yes. It is a big problem for Europe. I don’t expect that it will be fixed in the foreseeable future. In fact, it is being made worse in many ways.
You may reference and quote journal articles. That’s something I expect will stay allowed.
- Comment on Belgium Targets Internet Archive's 'Open Library' in Sweeping Site Blocking Order 1 week ago:
I’d say that European nations have a different understanding of press freedom. Mind that the individual nations have different attitudes toward this.
In Germany, press means mainly newspapers. The publishers owning these papers are very keen on copyright enforcement. Copyright does conflict with freedom of information but, I think, most would not see a conflict with press freedom.
The EU is determined to regulate who is allowed to use data for what purpose and to create the legal tools to enforce that. That’s not limited to copyright. I’m very worried about that trend on many levels.
But I don’t think Yuri creators will face problems in most EU countries in the foreseeable future.
- Comment on Belgium Targets Internet Archive's 'Open Library' in Sweeping Site Blocking Order 1 week ago:
In short: IDK.
- Comment on Belgium Targets Internet Archive's 'Open Library' in Sweeping Site Blocking Order 1 week ago:
No.
The copyright lobby in the EU is homegrown. For example, the football league in Italy has achieved sweeping laws that can be used to block pirated live streams without much ado. Expect that to be rolled out across the EU.
It’s true that these EU corporations are in league with the US copyright lobby. After all, Europeans read American books, watch American movies, listen to American music. The books are usually badly translated and published by a European corporation, which gives Europeans a cut. European agencies, often government-sponsored monopolies, collect money and send much of it to the US. But a lot is doled out to European corporations. And the collecting agencies have a good thing going, as well.
- Comment on Belgium Targets Internet Archive's 'Open Library' in Sweeping Site Blocking Order 1 week ago:
People, including many Europeans, make a lot of assumptions about Europe.
Americans in particular seem to assume that issues fall along the same political Dem/Rep divide as in the US. That gives them bad ideas. European countries have more solid social safety nets, more accessible and cheaper health care and education, more developed and usable public transport systems, …
On other issues like immigration or racism, they are on a MAGA-level. There is no big controversy because it is widely taken for granted that European nations are ethno-states. This is less so in the former colonial powers Britain and France. But they have their own baggage that gnaws at them from within, just like the history of racial segregation undermines the USA.
Another area where Europe is just different from the US is freedom of information. It’s just not respected in the same way. Intellectual property, on the other hand, is held in much higher regard. That’s how it has been for a long time.
Now that the copyright industry is waging an all-out lobby battle against citizens, you can expect much more like this.
- Submitted 1 week ago to technology@lemmy.world | 91 comments
- Comment on Google tool misused to scrub tech CEO’s shady past from search 1 week ago:
Ok… Here’s something you should know.
What happened there was suppressing personal data from Google’s search engine. In the EU, that is regarded as a fundamental human right. The “right to be forgotten” is exactly about hiding a shady past. The GDPR gives you the right to demand that Google must omit certain links when people search for your name. Google does comply. You don’t need a court order or anything.
So, you can’t celebrate the GDPR while also condemning what happened here.
- Comment on EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google 1 week ago:
Maybe buying alcohol works differently where you live.
- Comment on EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google 1 week ago:
In both your examples the government service has your full identity, then pinky promises to forget it.
It can be like buying alcohol in a store. They look at you and see your age. Or if it’s unclear, the store clerk asks your idea and promptly forgets all about it. Except you’re not buying alcohol but a login for some age verifier.
- Comment on EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google 1 week ago:
The reverse is also a necessity: the government approved service should not be allowed to know who and for what a proof of age is requested.
It would send the proof to you. It would not know what you do with it. I gave an example in the previous post how the identity of the user could be hidden from the service.
If the middle man government service knows when and who is requesting proof-of-age, it’s easy to de-anonymise for example users of gay porn sites.
It would be a lot easier to get that information from the ISP.
- Comment on EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google 1 week ago:
The site would only know that the user’s age is being vouched for by some government-approved service. It would not be able to use this to track the user across different devices/IPs, and so on.
The service would only know that the user is requesting that their age be vouched for. It would not know for what. Of course, they would have to know your age somehow. EG they could be selling access in shops, like alcohol is sold in shops. The shop checks the ID. The service then only knows that you have login credentials bought in some shop. Presumably these credentials would not remain valid for long.
They could use any other scheme, as well. Maybe you do have to upload an ID, but they have to delete it immediately afterward. And because the service has to be in the EU, government-certified with regular inspections, that’s safe enough.
In any case, the user would have to have access to some sort of account on the service. Activity related to that account would be tracked.
If that is not good enough, then your worries are not about data protection. My worries are not. I reject this for different reasons.
- Comment on EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google 1 week ago:
Strictly speaking, neither needs to know the actual identity. However, the point is that both are supposed to receive information about the user’s age. I’m not really sure what your point is.
- Comment on Wyoming to host massive AI data center using more electricity than all Wyoming homes combined 2 weeks ago:
But this proposed data center is so big, it would have its own dedicated energy from gas generation and renewable sources, according to Collins and company officials.
The “depending on how you count” probably refers to the renewables.
- Comment on EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google 2 weeks ago:
Data processing mandated by law is legal. Governments can pass laws, unlike private actors. Public institutions are bound by GDPR, but can also rely on provisions that give them greater leeway.
I don’t see how that this is in any way necessary, either. But a judge may be convinced by the claim that this is industry standard best practice to keep the app safe. In any case, there may be some finer points to the law.
The state legally cannot force you to agree to some corporations (i.e. Google’s) terms,
I’m not too sure about that, either. For example, when you are out of work, the state will cause you trouble if you do not find offered jobs acceptable.
It’s another question, if not having access to age-gated content is so bad as to force you to do anything. Minors nominally have the same rights as full citizens, and they are to be denied access, too.
- Comment on EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google 2 weeks ago:
There are 3 parties:
- the user
- the age-gated site
- the age verification service
The site (2) sends the request to the user (1), who passes it on to the service (3) where it is signed and returned the same way. The request comes with a nonce and a time stamp, making reuse difficult. An unusual volume of requests from a single user will be detected by the service.