Belgium Targets Internet Archive's 'Open Library' in Sweeping Site Blocking Order
Belgium Targets Internet Archive's 'Open Library' in Sweeping Site Blocking Order (Update) * TorrentFreak
Don't they have anything better to do ?
FYI Belgian "site blocks" are still just simple DNS blocks at the ISP level.
You can easily get around it by using any of the well known public DNS resolvers.
Cheatsheet:
Google: 8.8.8.8
Cloudflare: 1.1.1.1
Quad9: 9.9.9.9
And if they make them change the results just in Belgium you can set up something simple like a pihole on a cheap VM with any random VPS and use the VM as your DNS server. Just make sure to host the VM somewhere that wont have the restrictions.
To think about it ... "major shadow libraries". That's something wrong now.
So - there was a liberal (bourgeois) revolution, there was a labor revolution, and now, I think, we must have another revolution. The word "libertarian" is unfortunately associated with ancap, despite being the same as "anarchist", which is unfortunately associated with ancom. And the word "democratic" has lost any meaning it had.
So they'll have to invent some new term.
But the time is nigh.
Post-ironic anti-centrist
Belgium can go fuck itself with all the waffles and chocolate it exploits from other countries.
Plus its pedos.
Waffles did nothing wrong :(
Copyright is stupid everywhere
Weird
Just checked, indeed blocked.
Another new warning page.
We had the Russian, Chinese, etc... censorhip page.
The dubious porn or drugs warning page.
And now this, the 'forbidden' page mentions illegal gambling sites for some reason.
Wow Belgium, I thought you were a bit cooler than that
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.
Americans in particular seem to assume that issues fall along the same political Dem/Rep divide as in the US.
Yes. As someone who grew in Russia, if I'd talk freely and casually about politics in the way we do here, with Americans IRL nearby, I'd probably be literally lynched regardless of those being majority Democrat or majority Republican minded, and if those Americans were sufficiently inattentive, even by a mixed crowd. Things associated with freedom and dignity and just human treatment of each other here are associated with fascism there, and the other way around. And it's very counterintuitive. And also honestly Americans and continental Europeans (but not Brits) generally feel more like peasants with pitchforks than like Russians, in every political-minded discussion. It really feels that they'd be perfectly fine with everyone disagreeing being relocated six feet under, and the purpose of the discussion is usually to let you atone and ask for mercy. Despite all the stereotypes about Russians, this is not the case here, you might get insults, but not that heavy unwillingness to accept your side's existence.
Though that was 10 years ago, now in the Russian-language space there's much wariness of propaganda and legal problems for speech and so on, so people speak less freely, while a loud minority of bootlickers likely outside Russia repeat some combination of American points, more similar to a Republican set, but at the same time certain they'd be loved by Democrats. It's weird.
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.
What about Spain and Portugal?
I don't think anyone has ever thought Belgium was cool. Been to Brussels plenty of times and I think it might be the least cool city in all of Europe. Except for FOSDEM of course. That is pretty damn cool.
Oh really? I always liked Brussels as a typically modern European city: a nice combo of old and new, friendly locals plus it's nice and walkable and has a decent variety of food options, though Bruges has them beat on walkability.
Plus they have a lot of great beer and the mitreillette, what's not to like?
I've definitely been a few places I'd rank lower anyway
That does it, I'm not having waffles anymore
FREE THE WAFFLES!
Waffles did nothing wrong :( no collateral victims pls.
This is because of one thing and one thing only: the right wingers.
Classic waffles are way better than those belgium giant ass ridges cant even hold the melted butter and high fructose corn syrup aunt jemima in one bite .
I'll still eat as many Freedom Waffles as I please.
Why?
That be the country where the king records a "happy psychopath"-style videos where he talks with his subjects over video calls on a smartphone. Everything clean, bright smiles, the subjects' selection is properly racially diverse. And you can just feel how with everything so perfect something is wrong, like - why that session of short video calls of the monarch with random (but very proportionally selected and similarly clothed in style) people even happens? What is it intended to show, that the king has empathy for every person? Were I a citizen of Belgium, I'd prefer the king to not care and tend to his garden instead. This feels so glowing and fake that one can't help thoughts like "what if the king actually eats children for breakfast".
You say this as if the problem isn't American corporations and pooled special interests bribing, blackmail and rig elections in every country they can until they get what they want.
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.
I appreciate the “fuck America swinging their dicks around in other’s business” sentiment, but let’s not entertain conspiracy where there isn’t any. America doesn’t need to push its preferences in places where the sentiment already aligns.
My post is that you you blame this on America you won’t think clearly about the actual issue, which is the sentiment of EU politicians and businesses and how they skew unduly in favor of harsh intellectual property restrictions.
Is there any European nation that favors freedom of press?
I was planning on emigrating there, due to LGBTQIA+ rights, metros, and elevation. But this has soured my choice.
What is the point with Internet archive & Belgium in your post?
Freedom of information in the internet. Belgium should not have made this law, or enforced it. It's one thing to have a law in your nation for wild card situations, but this is about not allowing Belgians access to information outside their libraries that may contradict state narratives & agendas.
you can't just emigrate to somewhere. (are you nihon jin?)
Curious about your elevation point, since we (with NL) are called the low countries.
Flat as a pancake except for some Ardennes, which are nice.
If it's for climate stuff you should know this means we are on or just above sea level, and some even below.
We do get high a lot tho.
nihon jin?)
ja
Curious about your elevation point
Over 60+meters above sea level, expecting all the glaciers melt after 3.0°C
I’m aware how lengthy and unaccepting emigrations are throughout Europe. I know at minimum it takes 6months to 3 years to validate permanent residency.
In The Netherlands we still have a freedom of press: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/media-en-publieke-omroep/persvrijheid-bewaken and we are also progressive on the LGBTQ+ front.
LOL Try saying something about Palestine
The way it’s portrayed online you’d think the Netherlands is the most civilized society ever formed by humankind. I know that nowhere is perfect, but it does seem like a really nice place to live. If only the language weren’t so silly.
But it's Netherlands.
They haven’t built mountains, and it will get resubmerged. It’s the deelevation/sinking that I haven't emigrated foremost. Everything else, yes, I want to become a citizen for.
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.
But blocking Anna's Archive, Libgen, OceanofPDF, Z-Library, and the Internet Archive's Open Library is such a terrible way to express that you hate press.
Science and academics should be freely pressed, without the authoritarianism of copyright. If my yuri koma was discussing prion synthesis, one shouldn’t deter me for referencing the journal.
In France, you have the choice between public press (depending a lot on the president in place thanks to his tax cut), you have capitalist propaganda, more or less obviously fascist, and that's it for the TV. On the web you have Blast, le Média, Frustration Magasine, or Humanity in paper if you want leftist media.
I’m aware of French freedom to be lynched. I’m asking if there are freer nations I can write yuri in, that won't persecute my sapphic heart🧡🤍💜.
EU used to be cool I guess.
Stupid Ghents.
I thought they were cool. It's the best city of flanders
hey belgium your waffles suck