WWJKD?

Among English-speaking Finnish people, Jyrki Kasvi is best known for his opposition to Lex Karpela. For example, a Finland for Thought post asks the question, "I wonder what Jyrki Kasvi would think of this."

"This" is related to a notice that was sent by Google Adsense.

Alexis Kouros threatens Finland for Thought with legal action over copyright infringement

I just received an e-mail from Google Adsense saying that Alexis Kouros of the monthly English newspaper, 6-Degrees, is threatening me with legal action over copyright infringement....

Here’s what Kouros wrote to Google…

"Dear Sir,

The following URL: www.finlandforthought.net Uses copyrighted material from different sources without permission. Following are examples that belong to myself, my company or those who have authorized me to contact you...."

Before I continue, Kouros is claiming that he’s writing on behalf of Kepa, YLE, STT, and Iltalehti?! I seriously doubt he has any sort of permission for that. These big companies have their own legal team who would no doubt deal with matters like these. So I’m guessing that Kouros is lying....

So anyways, a snagged three images from his 6-Degrees. Big deal!! Imagine if every blogger out there was threated with legal action over some snagged images, LOL! I don’t ever claim these photos are my own, and anytime the photographer’s name is listed, I always post it along with a link to the source.

This isn’t the first time Alexis Kouros has threatened a blogger, he went to the Finnish police and reported a similar incident. The police of course have better things to do didn’t pursue the case, plus his accusations were false according to the blogger I talked to.

So why would Kouros go after me? I’m a regular reader of the newspaper, and I regularly link to 6d’s articles and comment on them. I’ve had a link to 6d’s website ever since I launched this blog two and a half years ago! I’m a big supporter of his newspaper, so why attack your loyal fans? Well I’ve been publicly quite critical of Kouros himself and his writings. He’s treated his hard-working employees like shit then harassed them once they quit and started their own newspaper, he’s used taxpayer money to start an English magazine then uses it to push his anti-American propaganda (here, here and elsewhere), he has quite conservative, traditionalist attitudes (and here).

Alexis Kouros is quite to be critical on others in his own magazine, but when someone is critical of him, he buckles under pressure....He’s ran for public office on the Green Party’s ticket, which is supposed to be quite a liberal party and would never go after bloggers for this nonsense. I wonder what Jyrki Kasvi would think of this.

Now in the Alanis category, here's something that appears in the aforementioned Six Degrees. The interviewer, Alexis Kouros. The interviewee, Mikko Rauhala.

If the Finnish state says “You are not allowed to do this”, Mikko Rauhala is usually one of those people who says “Why not?”...A committed vegan and a transhumanist, Rauhala has also spearheaded a recent campaign against the new copyright law in Finland....

When the new copyright law was passed in Finland you started a campaign against it. What happened?

I set up forums where people could post instructions on how to circumvent the technical measures that media companies use to restrict access to their works. Then those of us who were concerned about the implications of the law to free speech, made proper use of the forums. According to the government, our actions can be interpreted as being against the law, so we signed a confession saying that we had actively tried to violate it and gave ourselves up to the police. Now it’s up to them to investigate the matter. Possibly some of us will get charged, but it’s also very possible that the case will not be prosecuted. Either way, testing the limits of the law is not likely to be left at this.

There were news that according to a EU directive nobody should be punished for this so-called crime.

The directive didn’t require a punishment, though it didn’t forbid it either. The real scoop is that when the law was discussed in the Finnish Parliament, minister Karpela claimed that the EU commission had given an official interpretation of the directive which supported hers. Now we know that she lied, trying to suppress some of the counter arguments. This is just one of the ways the government has been less than honest in pushing this law through.

Why are you opposed to the new copyright law?

The law has several problems. One is that people are no longer allowed to make even private use copies of copyrighted material unless the copyright holder agrees to give them this right by choosing not to limit it with some technological measure. The purpose of these measures is to restrict the use of the material in any way that the publisher sees fit. Restricting copying is just the beginning. The measures also can and do restrict the way the works can be consumed, for example by preventing commercials from being skipped on a DVD.

I think we can predict how the blogosphere will react to Alexis Kouros' actions (if he truly initiated the action with Google). Presumably Kouros has a bunch of Metallica albums.

[22 MAR 2007 - UPDATE]

[4 MAR 2008 - UPDATE]

lexkarpela

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