European Parliament adopts copyright reform in blow to big tech
European Parliament adopts copyright reform in blow to
big tech
by Dave CLARK, and Alex PIGMAN 26 March 2019
The European Parliament on Tuesday adopted copyright
reforms championed by news publishers and the media business, in defiance of
the tech giants that lobbied against it.
Despite an intense debate inside and outside of the
Strasbourg chamber, MEPs ended up passing the draft law with 348 votes in
favour, 274 against, and 36 abstentions.
European lawmakers were sharply divided, with both sides
subjected to some of the most intense rival lobbying the EU has ever seen from
tech giants, media firms, content creators and online freedom activists.
The culmination of a process that began in 2016, the
revamp to European copyright legislation was seen as urgently needed, not
having been updated since 2001, before the birth of YouTube or Facebook.
The reform was loudly backed by media companies and
artists, who want to secure revenue from web platforms that allow users to
distribute their content.
But it was strongly opposed by internet freedom activists
and by Silicon Valley, especially Google, which makes huge profits from the
advertising generated alongside the content it hosts.
After the vote, a Google spokesperson warned that the
reform "will still lead to legal uncertainty and will hurt Europe's
creative and digital economies."
- Protests and media stunts -
The final days before the vote were marked by marches and
media stunts, including tens of thousands of people protesting in Germany on
Saturday under the slogan "Save the Internet".
There were similar protests in Austria, Poland and
Portugal, while major Polish newspapers on Monday printed blank front pages in
an appeal that MEPs adopt the reform.
"I know there are lots of fears about what users can
do or not -- now we have clear guarantees for freedom of speech, teaching and
online creativity," Commission vice president Andrus Ansip said after the
vote.
Germany was at the heart of the anti-reform movement, led
by Julia Reda, a 32-year-old Pirate Party MEP who spearheaded a campaign
against two of the law's provisions that have become flashpoints in the debate.
Reda said the vote marked a "dark day for internet
freedom" and decried that MEPs refused, albeit narrowly, to modify the
text before the final vote.
For Reda and her supporters the main worry was Article
13, which aims to strengthen the bargaining power of rights holders with
platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Soundcloud, which use their content.
Under the reform, European law for the first time would
hold platforms legally responsible for enforcing copyright, requiring them to
check everything that their users post to prevent infringement.
- 'Details matter' -
Reda and her supporters warned that Article 13 would
require platforms to install expensive content filters that would automatically
and often erroneously delete content from the web.
Speaking after the vote, Reda told AFP that she still
hoped the German government would bow to public pressure and demand changes to
the law before it is formally adopted.
After that, seen by most observers as a formality, member
states will have two years to transpose the EU directive into their own
legislation.
"I think what the ultimate result will be that the
internet will become more like cable television," Reda told AFP.
"That generally there is going to be less diversity
of online platforms because the risk of running a platform legally will become
much higher."
Backers of the law, led by MEP Axel Voss, answered that
filters are not a requirement but they do not explain how companies can comply
with Article 13 without them.
The second article advocated the creation of a
"neighbouring right" to copyright for news media.
This is designed to enable news companies to demand
payment when their output is used by information aggregators like Google News
or social networks such as Facebook.
Major publishers including AFP have pushed hard for the
reform, seeing it as an urgent remedy to safeguard quality journalism and the
plummeting earnings of traditional media companies.
The reform, if properly implemented by member states
"can help to maintain journalism in the field, which all evidence shows is
still the best way to combat misinformation," said AFP CEO Fabrice Fries.
But opponents have called it a "link tax" that
will stifle discourse on the internet and pay only big media companies, with no
real benefits for journalists or news gatherers.
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