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EU Passes 'Content Portability' Rules Banning Geofencing (torrentfreak.com) 119

Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo writes: The European Parliament has passed draft rules mandating 'content portability', i.e. the ability to take your purchased content and services across borders within the EU. Freedom of movement rules, which allow EU citizens to live and work anywhere in the EU, require that the individual is able to take their life with them -- family, property, and services. Under the new rules, someone who pays for Netflix or BBC iPlayer and then moves to another EU country will retain access to those services and the same content they had previously. Separately, rules to prevent geofencing of content within the EU entirely are also moving forward.
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EU Passes 'Content Portability' Rules Banning Geofencing

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  • If the UK has begun the brexit process, how would EU law apply to license fee paying iPlayer users?

    • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20, 2017 @04:13PM (#54456205)

      The UK is still part of the EU until the Article 50 procedure has finished.

      • by Anonymous Coward
        UK citizens should stock up on lube while they can.
    • Unlikely to become law before the UK leaves the EU, so probably irrelevant. However, I suspect iPlayer wouldn't be affected anyway as you're not paying for the service, you're paying a TV license to receive broadcast TV in the UK. While you may not be allowed to use iPlayer without a TV license, that's not the service you're paying for. If you look at the briefing (linked in the article) it mentions the BBC specifically: "The draft regulation would apply to content services ... which are:
      (e) free-of-charge

  • by Mal-2 ( 675116 ) on Saturday May 20, 2017 @04:14PM (#54456209) Homepage Journal

    This makes the whole bit of Cannes not considering streaming-only films a tempest in a teapot. France won't be able to retain its "can't stream for three years" laws in place and remain in alignment with the content portability rules (which I honestly thought already existed).

    • France can very well keep that rule. Because the portability rule , the one spoken in the article, is only about people coming from , say , UK, and in France, could not use the BBC player because it checked for your rough location, so people coming in France and using their own streaming in a private setting. Business in France cannot import content. That is the second part about geofencing is, and will be lobbied against far more harder than the geo portability issue.
  • Since nothing prevents subscribing to a service from Western Europe in Eastern Europe, the prices have to be the same across the whole region. Major games on Steam are already too expensive for the poorer half of Europe.
    • It was like that for years with NHL GameCenter streaming package. As a CDN it was like $200. American $120 (CDN ) or if you proxy'd through Russia it was $50 (CDN)
    • Since nothing prevents subscribing to a service from Western Europe in Eastern Europe, the prices have to be the same across the whole region. Major games on Steam are already too expensive for the poorer half of Europe.

      You are misunderstanding that completely. The principle that this rule is derived from is that EU citizens are allowed to move freely within the EU. That implies that they can bring their property from one country to another. That implies that they can bring their Netflix with them. If you paid while you were an EU citizen in Latvia, and then you move to the UK, you can use Netflix in the UK (until March 2019). If you are a US citizen living in Latvia then you have no such right. If you are a Latvian citize

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Man, the EU is kicking America's ass in terms of digital rights. Cookie laws, the right to be forgotten, now mandating that people can use what they buy anywhere. You guys got any room for a junior programmer?

  • by An Ominous Cow Erred ( 28892 ) on Saturday May 20, 2017 @05:18PM (#54456395)

    For instance, Germany censors media heavily when it contains Nazi imagery... ...does that mean it is now legal for you to access it in Germany if you acquired the access somewhere else in the EU?

    • by Gryle ( 933382 )

      If I'm reading the article correctly, the portability rules affect streaming services, but not governments. A government can still legally censor content. To go back to your Germany example, you would still have access to your movies or games with Nazi imagery but further purchases of similar material would be heavily scrutinized.

      I'm not sure how this would work with the BBC though. Can someone from the UK shed some light?

    • For instance, Germany censors media heavily when it contains Nazi imagery... ...does that mean it is now legal for you to access it in Germany if you acquired the access somewhere else in the EU?

      What makes you think that? The stuff isn't just censored, it's also illegal. (And saying 'Heil Hitler' in a pub in Germany means you will be thrown out, with your teeth following you a few seconds later).

  • by bernywork ( 57298 ) <bstapleton.gmail@com> on Sunday May 21, 2017 @01:25AM (#54457851) Journal

    Oh, this'll be fun.

    So people from Spain that have set top boxes and pay peanuts for rights to watch the English Premier League will be able to take their boxes with them to the UK and watch skipping the huge mark up that BT and Sky put on their services to watch the games.

    Previously, this was against the law and people were fined for it, now it seems, that's fine.

    The English Football League is going to be glad for Brexit now.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    ...is once again on the side of the consumer. It's as if the citizens of the EU actually had a say.

Let's organize this thing and take all the fun out of it.

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