Despite massive protests, the European Union approved a controversial new copyright directive. The two-year-old law is meant to give copyright holders more control over the results of their work, but critics say it could give tech giants more power, stifle the free flow of information, and even kill beloved memes.
The European Parliament adopted the copyright directive by 348 votes to 274 and 36 abstentions. The new guidelines are the first major update to EU copyright law since 2001. They went through a complex and confusing legislative process that only caught public attention last summer. Lawmakers opposed to the directive tried to remove the most controversial pieces of legislation ahead of the final vote on Tuesday, but lost by 5 votes short.
The directive is said to be aimed at strengthening the power of news outlets and content creators against big tech platforms like Facebook and Google that profit from the work of others. As a result, she has attracted wide support from celebrities such as Lady Gaga or Paul McCartney. Causing trouble for tech giants who make money and traffic by violating other people's copyrights sounds attractive in theory to many. However, a number of experts, including World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, disagree with two pieces of legislation that they believe could have huge unintended consequences.
In general, it is difficult to describe the situation, but the basic principles are quite simple. Article 11, or the so-called "link tax", requires web platforms to obtain a license to link or use snippets of news articles. This is intended to help news organizations monetize services such as Google News that display headlines or portions of content offered to readers. Article 13 requires a web platform to make every effort to obtain licenses for copyrighted material before uploading it to its platforms, and changes the current standard to require platforms to simply comply with requests to remove infringing material. It is expected that platforms will be forced to use imperfect strict filters when uploading content to cope with the flow of user-generated content, and the most stringent moderation methods will become the norm. In both cases, critics argue that the directive is too vague and short-sighted.
The European Parliament has adopted the copyright directive 348-274. The EU will get #uploadfilters and a counterproductive right for press publishers. #Article13 #Article11 #SaveYourInternet pic.twitter.com/Cu9eyI2Xqo
— Creative Commons (@creativecommons) March 26, 2019
The main fear is that the legislation will lead to the exact opposite of the intended results. Publishers will suffer as it becomes more difficult to share articles or get news, and instead of paying for a license, companies like Google will simply stop displaying news results from many sources, as they did when similar rules were enforced in Spain. Small and start-up platforms that allow users to upload content, meanwhile, will not be able to compete with Facebook, which can devote huge resources to content moderation and management. The possibility of acceptable fair use (which does not require special permission to use the copyrighted item, for example, for review or critique purposes) will essentially disappear - companies will simply decide that it is not worth risking legal liability for a meme or something like that.
MEP Julia Reda, one of the directive's most vocal critics, tweeted after the vote that it was a dark day for internet freedom. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said netizens have suffered a crushing defeat in the European Parliament. “The free and open Internet is rapidly being handed over to corporate giants from the hands of ordinary people,” writes Mr. Wales. “This is not about helping authors, but about empowering monopolistic practices.”
For those who oppose the directive, there is still a little hope: every country in the EU now has two years to pass legislation and improve it before it comes into force in their country. But as Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation pointed out, that too is dubious: “The problem is that web services running in the EU are unlikely to provide different versions of their sites to people depending on which country they are in. are: in order to simplify their lives, they are more likely to focus on the toughest reading of the directive in one of the countries.
How the political groups voted on #uploadfilters and the #linktax:
• @eppgroup overwhelmingly in favor
• @theprogressives & @aldegroup significantly in favor
• @GreensEP & @GUENGL overwhelmingly opposed#SaveYourInternet pic.twitter.com/x12Rp4q1Lm— Julia Reda (@Senficon) March 26, 2019
The results of voting on this directive will be posted on a special resource. Residents of the EU, dissatisfied with the new law, may yet be able to change the situation.
Source: 3dnews.ru