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New EU Rules on Portability of Online Content Services Move Closer

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 21 2017, @05:21PM   
from the streams-without-borders dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

Planned new EU laws aimed at making online content more accessible to those that subscribe to it are closer to being finalised after a deal struck on the new rules earlier this month was endorsed by representatives of national governments across the EU.

At the beginning of February, the Maltese presidency of the Council of Ministers, on behalf of EU member state governments, together with European Parliament officials, confirmed they had "reached a provisional agreement" on new rules for cross-border portability of online content services.

At the moment, online consumers are often blocked from accessing services they have already paid for when they go on holiday or on business to another EU country, sometimes as a result of licensing restrictions. These restrictions on access to content, on a geographic basis, are sometimes referred to as the practice of "geo-blocking".

Under the new rules that have been provisionally agreed on, online service providers that charge consumers in the EU to access content such as music, TV shows, films and games will be required to ensure those consumers can access that content when they are temporarily present in another EU country. Content service providers will not be able to charge extra to provide for the portability of their services under the new framework.

The new rules are expected to come into force in 2018.

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Original Submission

• Re:Is there NOTHING the EU won't stick its hands i Re:Is there NOTHING the EU won't stick its hands i (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Tuesday February 21 2017, @06:41PM

  by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday February 21 2017, @06:41PM (#469811)

  Give Chairman Pai a few more weeks, and the US will probably start to see state-specific geo-locks. Do you think the Americans will skip on an opportunity to gouge the public, now that it was pointed out by the EU?

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
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• Re:Is there NOTHING the EU won't stick its hands i Re:Is there NOTHING the EU won't stick its hands i (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22 2017, @12:38AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22 2017, @12:38AM (#469949)

  Give Chairman Pai a few more weeks

  You are a retard!

  the US will probably start to see state-specific geo-locks.

  Please provide supporting evidence, any utterance that such a thing could possibly be under consideration will do.

  Do you think the Hollywood liberals will skip on an opportunity to gouge the public, now that it was pointed out by the EU?

  Fixed!

  Did I tell you that you are retarded?

  Parent

  • Re:Is there NOTHING the EU won't stick its hands i (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday February 23 2017, @01:56PM

    by hendrikboom (1125) on Thursday February 23 2017, @01:56PM (#470692) Homepage Journal

    The directors, the artists, the scriptwriters may be liberal. (I admit, this is a sterotype)

    The suits, probably not as much.

    Parent