home Governance, Internet, Mobile Tech, social media EU just approved new controversial sweeping Article 13 copyright laws, a huge blow to major tech companies

EU just approved new controversial sweeping Article 13 copyright laws, a huge blow to major tech companies

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The European Parliament has adopted the copyright directive 348-274. The EU will get #uploadfilters and a counterproductive right for press publishers. #Article13 #Article11 #SaveYourInternet pic.twitter.com/Cu9eyI2Xqo— Creative Commons (@creativecommons) March 26, 2019

Europe has approved a sweeping overhaul of copyright rules, dealing a blow to major tech companies that argued the changes will be costly and limit free expression.

The European Parliament voted Tuesday to approve fiercely contested changes that make platforms such as YouTube responsible for copyright infringements committed by their users. Sites like Google News could also be required to pay publishers for using snippets of their content.

Copyright: Parliament just voted in favour of the proposed directive on copyright rules for the digital market. Press release to be published soon. pic.twitter.com/NDUvzrTIiJ— European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) March 26, 2019

The proposal was opposed by tech companies, which warned they would need to build expensive content filters and stop linking to publications. Internet activists argued that the changes would lead to censorship.On the other side of the debate were record labels, artists and media companies. They said reforms were needed to update copyright protections for the internet age and to ensure they’re fairly paid for content.

Unlike EU Regulations like the GDPR, which become law on passage by the central EU institutions, EU Directives have to be transposed: written into each member country’s national law. Countries have until 2021 to transpose the Copyright Directive, but EU rarely keeps its members to that deadline, so it could take even longer.

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James Barnley

I’m the editor of the DomainingAfrica. I write about internet and social media, focusing mainly on Domains. As a subscriber to my newsletter, you’ll get a lot of information on Domain Issues, ICANN, new gtld’s, Mobile technology and social media.