After two years of deliberation and seemingly endless debates, European Union officials finally agreed on the final draft of the controversial Copyright Law. Yesterday, the EU Parliament and EU Council held an informal meeting to write the final draft of the Copyright Directive that requires internet companies to enforce copyright protection.
The EU’s Copyright Law includes the heavily criticized Article 11 and Article 13, dubbed as the “link tax” and “meme ban” policies.
Article 11, which already failed in Germany, requires companies like Facebook and Google to pay news organizations to be able to use their news headlines on their websites. It also needs other commercial sites and apps to buy licenses for anything that their user uploads online.
Meanwhile, Article 13 forces Internet companies to use filters to check if an uploaded content violates the EU’s copyright policies. Campaigners against the policy said it could lead to the potential banning of memes and seriously restrict the potential growth of smaller companies and artists.
Read More: Proposed EU Copyright Law Is Bound To Destroy The Internet
Finalizing and Updating EU’s Copyright Law
“The history of this law is a shameful one,” German MEP Julia Reda, wrote in a blog post.
“From the very beginning, the purpose of Articles 11 and 13 was never to solve clearly-defined issues in copyright law with well-assessed measures, but to serve powerful special interests, with hardly any concern for the collateral damage caused.”
According to Reda, concerns of academics, researchers, and startup companies were ignored in the pursuit of implementing the Copyright Law.
Among the many companies that will be severely affected if the Copyright Directive passed into law is Youtube. Since last year, the video streaming site has been vocal in its opposition to the policy. According to Youtube, while the intention to protect creativity is good, the initial text drafted by the EU officials will likely cause other undesirable effects.
The final draft rules of the Copyright law will now wait for the next process to begin: the European Union Parliament and the EU Council to vote for its passing into law.
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