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The EU votes on a confusing new copyright law Tuesday
On Tuesday, the European Parliament will vote on an overhaul of the EU's copyright system. The body will vote on a compromise announced last month that has received the backing of key European governments. An earlier version of the proposal was approved by the European Parliament last September.
The legislation is controversial, with two provisions receiving the bulk of the criticism. Article 11 aims to help news organizations collect more licensing fees from news aggregators like Facebook and Google News. Article 13 aims to help copyright holders to collect licensing fees from user-generated content platforms like YouTube and Facebook.
Both provisions are maddeningly vague—laying out broad goals without providing much detail about how those goals can be achieved. This is partly because the EU's lawmaking system occurs in two stages. First, EU-wide institutions pass a broad directive indicating how the law should be changed. Then each of the EU's member nations translates the directive into specific laws. This process leaves EU-wide legislators significant latitude to declare general policy goals and leave the details to individual countries.
Still, if the legislation's goals are incoherent or contradictory, then something is going to have to give. And critics warn that the package could wind up damaging the Internet's openness by forcing the adoption of upload filters and new limits on linking to news stories.
See also: Tomorrow's copyright vote explained (Julia Reda)
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:18AM (2 children)
I'm from the US and this scares me. I see the US going to shit so I want to keep my options open, but everywhere else is going to shit just as fast if not faster.
My current plan is to think happy thoughts.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @02:21PM (1 child)
You can always do like the old days, be a pirate! We can't do anything about stupid laws forced upon us by a strong force of powerful and stupid, but we can have our fun in the tunnels beneath society.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @10:46AM
If you truly care about liberty, now is the time to put your money, ethics, and hardships where your mouth is, and make a difference, because if not you, who? And if not now, when?
We're rapidly approaching a last chance at liberty without leaving the planet.