European Parliament Blocks Copyright Reform With 113% Voter Turnout

New submitter mcmadman writes "In a bizarre turn of events, the legal affairs committee of the European Parliament, voted to weaken a reform of the copyright monopoly for allowing re-publication and access to orphan works. What is surprising is that the voter turnout happened to be 113%. That there were three votes too many, and that these three votes determined the outcome, was pointed out to the committee. Unfortunately, when this was done, along with formally requesting a re-vote, the re-vote was denied."

Whoops

[niftydude]

I guess someone accidentally bought too many votes this time.

In other news

[Anonymous Coward]

Putin's approval rating has plummeted to 112% in favor.

So the dead vote in Europe too?

[DesScorp]

113 percent? Where did they count the votes? Chicago?

Math

[philip.paradis]

Hold on fellas, you've got it all wrong. Math is different in Europe (they've got their commas and periods all backward in many places), especially when it's attorneys doing the counting. Folks just have to understand this, and fortunately there's a great instructional video [youtube.com] available for those in need of further tutelage.

Is this unexpected?

[cold fjord]

Europeans often point out to Americans the higher turn-outs in their elections. They aren't quite to up Chicago standards, but it is a respectable showing none the less.

Start the Day with Some Eurocrat Bashing [nationalreview.com]

99%?

[Zoolander]

You americans with your puny 99%. This parliament goes to 113!

Re:Math

[Don_dumb]

Hold on fellas, you've got it all wrong. Math is different in Europe (they've got their commas and periods all backward in many places), especially when it's attorneys doing the counting. Folks just have to understand this, and fortunately there's a great instructional video [youtube.com] available for those in need of further tutelage.

Very true. For a start - we call it Maths

Re:Math

[wvmarle]

Hold on fellas, you've got it all wrong. Math is different in Europe (they've got their commas and periods all backward in many places), especially when it's attorneys doing the counting. Folks just have to understand this, and fortunately there's a great instructional video [youtube.com] available for those in need of further tutelage.

Very true. For a start - we call it Maths

So that's where the vote count went wrong! They were counting plurals where there should be singulars!

Re:Whoops

[RubberChainsaw]

The reason is that Diebold was responsible for the count.

Re:Math

[91degrees]

Plus , we use metric. 1 Metric vote = 1.13 US votes.

The EU parliament is precious

[peppepz]

I think it's nice to add, as a background to the discussion, that each of the invaluable members of the European Parliament earns something like 6,200 € a month, plus 304 € for each day they're actually at the parliament, plus 4,299 € to cover general expenses, plus up to 19,709 € to pay their assistants. Of course you can't afford to pay train tickets with such a wage, so they also get their housing and transportation costs reimbursed. After they're done with their precious services, they'll get a pension of 1,392 € a month for a single mandate, 2,784 € for two, and 5,569 € if they've stayed in the parliament for more than 20 years.

It's normal that after taking all that public money, they want to give 113% of their energies, in order not to let the community down.

Re:How can that even happen?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is Europe. They get cheques, not checks.

Re:Math

[JWSmythe]

    What the heck? I was expecting a Rick Roll, and you gave a link to a real explanation.

    $8 billion or 75,000 jobs? Damn. :)

Re:Math

[Anonymous Coward]

$8 billion or 75,000 jobs? Damn. :)

Now, before you blame the iPod for the losses of the Media industry, remember that iTunes made them a ton of money, while Apple actually lost Jobs last year.

Re:Math

[webheaded]

Right, I'm sure it has nothing to do with what an enormous pain in the ass it is to convert the entirety of the United States to a different system of measurement. It's not like this is a big place or anything, we could do it in a weekend. No, it must be because we hate the French.

I mean come on, that's stupid. No one likes the French...it isn't just us. Give us a little credit here.

Re:So the dead vote in Europe too?

[drainbramage]

If it's okay for non citizens to vote it must be okay for former citizens to vote?
Just because some one is dead, brain dead, or fictional they must not be denied any 'rights' in the U.S.A.
The right to vote where ever they choose, the right to free housing, the right to free food, the right to defecate on the sidewalk.
Today teh U.S.A. tomorrow teh world!

Re:So the dead vote in Europe too?

[mcgrew]

We in Illinois are so patriotic that even being dead doesn't keep us from voting!

Re:Whoops

[abe ferlman]

You guys have it all wrong. On matters relating to the music and video industries, duplicate votes are worth exactly as many as the originals.