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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

The EU Commission’s wording could land social media users in legal hot water.

The European Commission created a legal minefield for billions of internet users with a well-intentioned but poorly worded proposed law to help struggling publishers guard against digital attrition by Google and other news aggregators.

As people read the fine print in plans released last month to strengthen publishers' rights over their articles, they discovered the Commission may have accidentally exposed tweeters, facebookers and even LinkedIn users to the whims of the world's most powerful media organizations.

Under the Commission's proposal, copyright lawyers could chase down citizens for sharing sentences or snippets of articles on social media.

"Users would be breaking the law if they use snippets of articles whether it is enforced or not," said Julia Reda, a Member of the European Parliament. The law is intended to help traditional publishers survive the digital age but, she said, "it applies to everyone, and if we pass this legislation, it will be in the hands of the publishers to decide whether they want to enforce it."

The check's in the mail...

Source: http://www.politico.eu/article/copyright-conundrum-tweeting-this-may-cost-you/

Original Submission