All the bacon in the world, couldn’t save you now.
The European Union just passed an initial vote in favor of the Copyright Directive. Thankfully, that doesn’t mean it’s gone through, yet; it still needs the approval of Parliament. But chances are that it’ll go through, unless people in Europe make a really big stink about it.
Why’s it so important?
Well, as reported by Wired, it’s meant to update internet copyright law. But, unfortunately, it contains a number of clauses that are pretty much guaranteed to have a detrimental effect on the internet as a whole, or at least in Europe. It could very well force many large platforms to police their users content before it’s posted. And that would effect everything from memes, to open source software, and even livestreams.
The major sticking points seem to be Article 11 and Article 13 of the document. 11 essentially calls for major companies like Google and Facebook to pay a “link tax”. In essence, that means they have to buy a license from other major media outlets to link to their content. Coincidentally, Spain tried to do that shit a few years ago with Google, and it didn’t exactly work out in Spain’s favor. Because when you try to play hardball with google like that, they’re far more likely to just say that you get nothing out of them and walk away.
Article 13, on the other hand, concerns an “upload filter”. And that requires everything posted in the EU to be checked for copyright infringement before it’s posted. In essence, it means to protect music, videos, and online streams from piracy, but casts such a wide net that it’ll probably scuttle pretty much everything people use the internet for.
Hope
According to The Verge, however, there are over 70 experts in related fields who oppose the legislation. Among them, the likes of World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, and Mozilla Executive chairwoman Mitchell Baker. This large group crafted and sent a joint letter to both the European Commission and European Parliament on the matter.
And they’re far from the only ones to express displeasure with the Copyright Directive. I’d imagine this is one of those make or break moments, so if you live in the EU, you might want to make your voice heard, and soon.
If you need more information, the Save Your Internet Initiative offers the lion’s share. You can also read the original proposal for the Copyright Directive in full at this link, here.
Source: PC Gamer
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