European Parliament rejects copyright bill
Source: Boing Boing
In a 318 to 278 vote, the European Parliament today shot down proposals that would have made online publishers liable for users’ copyright infringement and made even linking to other websites fraught with legal risk. The bill, widely reviled for its service to legacy media interests and general ignorance of the internet itself, now goes back to committee.
Julia Reda, a Pirate Party MEP who had campaigned against the legislation tweeted: “Great success: Your protests have worked! The European Parliament has sent the copyright law back to the drawing board.”
BPI Music, which represents UK record labels, had supported the bill and tweeted: “We respect the decision… we will work with MEPs over the next weeks to explain how the proposed directive will benefit not just European creativity, but also internet users and the technology sector.” …
The Copyright Directive is intended to bring rules around content in line with the digital age. The two most controversial parts of it are Article 11 and Article 13. The first of these is intended to provide fair remuneration for publishers and prevent online content-sharing platforms and news aggregators sharing links without paying for them. But it has been called the “link tax” by opponents and raised questions about who will have to pay and how much. Article 13 puts more onus on websites to enforce copyright laws and could mean that any online platform that allows users to post text, images, sounds or code will need a way to assess and filter content.
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When one of the creators of the Internet as we know it today (not you Al Gore!) voices their discontent with the latest overstep of power towards full throttle censorship, you know it’s serious business. Tim Berners-Lee, best known for his work helping to create the World Wide Web, along with other Internet pioneers, have penned an open letter opposing the Members of European Parliament (MEPs) who voted earlier this week in favor of a plan to force publishers to automatically remove any content that appears to violate copyright.
On Gizmodo, Rhett Jones pulls no punches about Article 13 and Article 11 — a pair of copyright proposals that go up for a committee vote in the EU in mere hours. Jones says: “Memes, news, Wikipedia, art, privacy, and the creative side of fandom are all at risk of being destroyed or kneecapped. And it looks like the boneheaded proposal has a good chance of passing.”
Posting memes, remixes, and other similar content could soon be banned from the Web in the European Union, according to critics who are speaking out against a recently proposed copyright law. The law, known as the “Copyright Directive,” will be voted on later this month by the European Parliament, and lawmakers suggest that this will protect content creators in the Internet age. However, one of the primary reasons why the internet age has brought us so much innovation and novelty is because of the fact that such a large aggregate of people are able to share their ideas and build upon the ideas of others to create something uniquely special.
As Europe’s latest copyright proposal heads to a critical vote on June 20-21, more than 70 Internet and computing luminaries have spoken out against a dangerous provision, Article 13, that would require Internet platforms to automatically filter uploaded content. The group, which includes Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, the inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, co-founder of the Mozilla Project Mitchell Baker, Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, cryptography expert Bruce Schneier, and net neutrality expert Tim Wu, wrote in a joint letter that was released today.
Internet interaction could forever be changed, according to digital rights groups, if the European Union passes revamped copyright legislation effectively banning memes, Wikipedia citation and other staples of the online world. The EU is set to vote on draft legislation regarding a digital single market later this month. In the update to European copyright law, greater onus is being put on so-called “information society service providers” to protect creative work by artists, academics and publishers of original content.
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