On March 26, the European Union approved the reform of the Copyright Law, specifically Articles 11 and 13 (now 15 and 17). The vote ended with 348 votes in favor of the amendment to the law, 274 against, and 36 abstentions.
Now, what are Articles 11 and 13 about? What reactions has the approval of this new law prompted? In the next article, we'll discuss this and draw some conclusions about what the future holds.
What are the controversial articles 11 and 13 about?
Articles 11 and 13 (now 15 and 17) have been the most controversial of the new European copyright proposal. The first covers the link tax. That is, it prohibits freely linking to other users' content or using excerpts from that content. This action, until now, had been costa rica mobile database carried out by social networks or news aggregators. With the reform, anyone wishing to incorporate content or link to the original article must pay a tax. The second imposes that online platforms, such as YouTube and Facebook, among others, must use filters to detect and eliminate any infringement by users.
What have been the reactions?
Once the new law is approved, European Union member states will have two years to adapt the regulations to their respective national laws.
As expected, the law's passage has not been without its share of backlash. Platforms such as Google and YouTube have threatened to withdraw their services in Europe. Mozilla, for its part, has explained some of the negative effects the new Copyright Law will have on Internet users.
In a letter spearheaded by Tim Berners-Lee and Vinton Cerf, considered the fathers of the internet, among many other gurus, they addressed Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, explaining how this new law represents a step backward, as well as going against the pillars of the World Wide Web as an open network conducive to information sharing. Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Catherine Sithler also spoke out, stating that the new law creates a more closed society. She believes we should be taking advantage of digital transformations to create a more open society.
Julia Reda, a member of the European Parliament and member of the German Pirate Party, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the reform.
What can we expect from the new law?
Many hypotheses are emerging regarding this new regulatory change. Below are some of our conclusions. However, as is often the case, we won't know the seriousness of the situation until the measures are implemented.
Supporters of this new law speak of the intention to return to a unidirectional function of information. Therefore, we could say that the Internet as we know it now will disappear. We would be losing the essence of the network itself. What will become of the content curator?
The tax on linking to content will restrict freedom of expression and would primarily affect independent or small-scale content creators, favoring larger companies or organizations.
The effectiveness of the platforms' use of filters remains to be assessed. We're waiting to see how the algorithms will be used to determine whether content is copyrighted or not.
There's a controversy surrounding the disappearance of memes. Several media outlets claim that we'll be able to continue using memes and GIFs as before.