Ming is our only hope!
I can't say it's a surprising development. The EU is trying for greater congruence with the US, even though there is always a huge number of people opposing it, and this looks like us following their laws on copyright.
It's also not surprising because it's a ... copyright law. It deals with copyright, and make the things we do every day illegal because, well, they kind of are already, they're just not enforceable.
Take for example the image above. That is from a Wordpress blog which is one of many keeping a record of election posters and other images in Ireland. Does someone own that image? Maybe. Do I care? Not at all.
Really copyright it a flawed system but it's as rock solid as the idea of debt in the global shared culture. I really will write to Ming about this but I think we need a new internet, away from all this meddling.