Update: Article 11 is now 15 and Article 13 is not 17. Please apply as you worst-read.
Last Saturday late morning I hopped on my e-bike and trekked to D’dorf’s city-centre to pick up a loaf of the world’s greatest bread and after that consume-to-survive a pair of fancy-pants new Birkenstock shoes. That’s right, dear worst-reader. I got my first pair of Birkenstock house shoes a few months ago. After a bit of break-in (for my feet as much as the footbeds), I’m now sold on these shoes. In fact, my feet haven’t felt this good in years. So I figured a pair of outdoor Birkenstock could also be cool. As of the writing of this worst-post, I’ve worn my new fancy footbed shoes for about an hour each day and I’m comfortable admitting that when I walk around in them I actually shed a tear of joy. They are that friggin comfortable. I’m shocked it took me so long to find this level of foot relief. With that in mind, I suppose a pseudo-worst-review in the near future is worth considering. Check back on that later, baby.
After diddle-daddling around in the city it was time to get back on my trusty e-bike and head home to some worst-writing activity. While on my way, though, I was perturbed by yet another Germanin protest that was occupying the city centre. While pausing at a street corner that I couldn’t cross, I asked a fellow pedestrian what the riff-raff was all about.
“Article 13,” she said.
“Article who,” I responded, thereby also noticing her Königsallee shopping bags. She was lugging around quite a bit of stuff. It soon became obvious, as she resorted to occupying herself with her phone screen and lighting a fag, she was relieved to take a break from carrying all her consume-to-survive krapp around. For a second there I thought about telling her to get an e-bike to carry it all. Blah. Blah. Blah.
It was then I noticed the signs the protestors were carrying.
Oh, that Article 13, I recalled.
Yeah, I remember all that EU Interwebnets copyright bull$hit. Heck, I even worst-thought once or thrice about the issue. When was all this #Eurowasteland Interwebnets copyright nonsense law making bull$hit first introduced, by-the-buy? Nomatter. Luckily the street-hordeing protestors were short and sweet and I was able to get on my early-retired e-biking way soon enough. That was last Saturday, don’t you know. On Tuesday (or so) the EU finally passed Article 11 & 13 (and the whole copyright regulation bull$hit). Whup-dee-fcuking-do, eh!
I’ve actually kinda let go of the whole EU fascination of regulating the Interwebnets. Same goes with taxation–without representaiton–which all the EU can do, as well. Heck, my thoughts have been: they regulate everything else and it seems to have worked out pretty good so far, right? I mean, the EU definitely ain’t #Americant. Indeed. It’s #Eurowasteland. Still. They can’t screw things up anymore than they already are–as lead by #Americant. Or? Also. I’ve been kinda impressed with what the EU has done in recent years (GDPR). Heck, let’s see if they fcuk this up. If that sounds odd (naive), allow me to worst-explain a bit more.
As I touched upon this issue (GDPR and the copyright krapp) ever-so slightly in this post, I think it’s easy to misinterpret what is actually going on–especially when considering how my beloved & missed united mistakes of #Americant talks about it. With that in mind, dear worst-reader, please don’t think that I’m in anyway promoting government. You know, as in big-government. Nor am I promoting authoritarianism via whacked-out, fcuked-up government honey-suckle-ness that is the EU parliament. Indeed. In short, here’s the thing according to worst-writer that I think the EU is trying to do which also leads me to believe that the current protests are somewhat misguided–because they watch too much #Americant Interwebnets krapp.
Technology has long since facilitated the new paradigm. Like any other new paradigm, it is inevitable that the $hitshow of the greed-ringer be let loose. Indeed. In other worst-words: There is Capitalism and then there is Capitalism’s (monster) greed-ringer. As far as I can tell, the only part of this fcuked up world that is attempting to deal with the greed-ringer (legislatively) is the EU. Time will tell if the EU’s attempt at addressing Man’s worst (tendencies) will lead to his best (ill-tendencies) but until then, something has to be done about monopolies, oligopolies and $hitbag internet companies that think they own users, content and the friggin world (greed-ringer-monsters). Obviously, with its misguided and one-sided (one-way-street) capitalism run-amok, the US is legislatively incapable of addressing the ills of not only monopolies but the fact that technology itself has turned to the dark side. Although I agree with some of the issues regarding Article 11 & 13 that are raised by the protestors, the thing that makes me skeptical and thereby question the protestors is that they say (have said) very little about the power (and reach) of monopoly entities like Google, facebag, AWS, etc. Most of these protests seem to be about end users who want to upload krapp–that is not their own. Which begs the question: is this regulation about controlling end-users? From what I can tell, I don’t think it is. I think this regulation is about controlling the big guys. The big greedy guys, don’t you know. FYI. Google has long since become part of the old economy. If it makes money off of content like the old economy did, damn-right it should pay a “link-tax” for that. Should small-time bloggers and vloggers pay the same link-tax? Of course not. The reality is, Google has singlehandedly turned the fcuking Interwebnets into a krappy commercial pre-Internet television $hitshow. I mean, come on. How many ways should a monopoly be allowed to milk suckers? The entire world of technology is acting like one big monopoly with befriended and privileged (moneyed) silos. I’m good with any attempt at regulating that $hit–as long as the regulation is about the big guys and not… the nothingness of worstwriter dot com. Does that make me naive? Maybe. Btw, I only post my own krapp on this blog (other than a few screenshots from the Interwebnets here and there). The real problem is, the old economy has beaten the new economy to a pulp–and Google, facebag, other tech companies have acted and profited accordingly–leaving us users to face the consequences. The only way to deal with a so-called free-market that is obviously not free (run amok) is through government regulation. These companies have had enough time to adjust to the new paradigm that they’ve obviously lost control of. As far as I can tell, only the EU is trying to address this $hit. It might not be perfect but at least it’s something.
Rant on.
-T
Links that motivated this post (that might or might not be legal or might be subject to copyright regulation; sarcasm off):
worstwriter 