I'm in germany - should I get a VPN, NOW or wait what happens?

[Mihle]

6 hours ago, Blademaster91 said:

What are the facts then? Like every news source i've seen states if you post a link or article you can be taxed if you don't have permission, the laws are very vague and could be abused to collect money. The people downplaying it as not being that bad clearly don't mind more control over information, its just greed and the music and movie industry likely paid people for the laws to pass. I'm glad i'm not in the EU, because in the US we have Fair Use laws so crap like article 13 and article 11 wouldn't pass.

The fact is that in article 11, it says that our have to ask for permission/pay if you copy/quote/snippet large enough part of the original article.

Only linking half a sentence quote don't. How much is vague, but the directive itself is not a law, it's a thing it's member countries is supposed to make laws based on, usually little bit more spesific. If not, it's up to the courts to decide.

 

From my understanding, the main target of EU of this is for example Google news that shows you news sites articles, but without showing you their adds.

 

I am not saying it can't affect non intended things tho, it can, just that just linking is allowed just fine.

 

EU dont have fair use as it's own law, but it does have something similar (maybe somewhat weaker tho), but it is not its own law. It's written as exceptions on the copyright laws. I don't remember all spesifics about it right now, but it did allow for for example parodies, use for non commercial scientific research and quotation for the purpose of criticism or review.

 

Don't have link right now, I am on my phone.

 

 

[FinnegansWake]

I can hardly see the technical possibilities that would allow censorship at the level that Article 13 is intended to be: mainly to copyright everything down to the last meme. If you're a content producer and you're in EU and IF article 13 is implemented the way it is considered now then there may be serious consequences for content producers and some content for sure will be blocked by whatever agency they establish to achieve that. But as I said, I can hardly see that happening.

 

Then again, IMHO there's a reason why VPNs are becoming more popular each year. Lots of people are skeptical about them with all that "I've got nothing to hide" but it's more about marketing than criminal activity. Browsing histories of millions of users in the target location are worth a lot and VPN adds an extra layer of protection, first of all by masking your IP address. Then there's encryption and all that stuff but to get back to your question I think VPNs will become more popular in EU because censorship is going up, and there will be a need to bypass it just like now people are bypassing geo-blocks. TBH check it for yourself, I'm using Surfshark and it costs like 1.99$/MO, there's money back guarantee in case you don't need any of it. But try browsing without any protection, see how it affects the ads, then do a week with VPN on and clearing cashe/cookies, try accessing geo-blocked content, I find it worth those few extra bucks.