"Controversial new copyright laws have been approved by members of the European Parliament.
The legislation had been changed since July when the first version of the copyright directive was voted down. Critics say it remains problematic.
Many musicians and creators claim the reforms are necessary to fairly compensate artists.
But opponents fear that the plans could destroy user-generated content, memes and parodies.
Leaders of the EU’s member states still need to sign off on the rule changes before the individual countries have to draft local laws to put them into effect.
The vote in Strasbourg was 438 in favour of the measures, 226 against and 39 abstentions.
‘Link tax’
MEPs voted on a series of changes to the original directive, the most controversial parts are known as Article 13 and Article 11.
Article 13 puts the onus on web giants to take measures to ensure that agreements with rights holders for the use of their work are working.
Critics say that would require all internet platforms to filter content put online by users, which many believe would be an excessive restriction on free speech.
Article 11 is also controversial because it forces online platforms to pay news organisations for the use of their content.
MEPs settled for a version of the directive that compromised on some of the methods news organisations will be able to use to charge web companies for links to content.
The final version clarifies that this will not include the sharing of hyperlinks to content such as news stories.
It also watered down a proposal for upload filters to automatically delete content that violates copyright."
I’m talking about the spring of 2019 where we can still change it… if we’re lucky
“Now that Parliament and Council have adopted their positions, we will have one final chance to reject #UploadFilters and #LinkTax in the final vote on the directive after trilogue, probably in the spring. Talk to your governments meanwhile!”
Yeah this is problematic, EU not doing itself any favors in the current political climate. Hope someone comes to their senses, the basic idea behind this is fundamentally flawed.
Why are the 2 vastly different topics merged all of a sudden?
spoke about EA and lootbox legality. going to court against belgian
spoke about Artikel 11 and 13 from the European Parlement and its votes regarding free internet. Its about big corps having to pay money for a license for each link that they have on their website. So each news artikel that gets copied 1:1 means they have to pay for it. Mostly twitter/facebook/social media has to pay then. While Artikel 13 is about copyright protection for stuff on the internet…
Pardon me while I laugh into my sleeve. Oh, Europe, you were supposed to be the ones leading us into a bright, progressive new future! What happened? Oh dear. I’ll be happy to sell you some memes on the black market cheaply after your wonderful EU bans them, don’t worry.
Yes, I must have been confused to expect anything better from Europe. You’re right, obviously. I must have taken complete leave of my senses to think Euros wouldn’t screw something up.
To put this into perspective, still a brighter future than most places in the world. Todays problem is middle aged people not understanding the internet, quelle surprise. Could be a lot worse, we’re still enormously privileged.
