On Thursday , members of European Parliament held a vote on themisguidednew right of first publication reforms that posed a threat to meme , online encyclopedias , news program organizations , and pretty much everything that ’s good online . Incredibly , lawmaker decided not to do the dim affair and voted down the measure . It ’s not over yet , but there ’s plenty of cause to observe .
In June , the European Union ’s legal affairs committeevotedto move forwards with a balloting on the first major overhaul of European copyright law since 2001 . The vote on Thursday was wide expected to be the decisive moment on whether the legislation would become the law of the demesne , but public outcry and a campaign by some of thebiggest namesin tech appear to have worked in fire cognisance about the shortcomings of the greenback . In a318 - 278decision , E.U. lawgiver elect to air the legislation back to committee for review , and a new voter turnout is ask in September .
The controversy over the newcopyright directivestems from two shadowy but incredibly eventful pieces of the legislation . The first , Article 11 , calls for a “ radio link taxation ” that would require popular web site to pay off newsworthiness organization for linking to article or using snipping of school text . The second , Article 13 , mandate that the same platforms — estimated to underwrite the top 20 percent of sites — use a capacity filter organisation to prevent copyrighted workings from being upload to the entanglement . In both event , the bill lack specificity in how website should apply the requirements , leavingmanyto expect that they would simply take the most arduous - handed approach to void operate afoul of the natural law .
More than anything , the legislation was wrongheaded because it gave no considerateness tofair usepractices . Earlier this week , Italian , Spanish , Estonian , Latvian , Polish , French , and Lusitanian variant of Wikipediablockedusers from accessing pages on their sites so as to invoke awareness about the right of first publication directive and to encourage drug user tocontacttheir instance . Wikipedia is a quintessential representative of the commodity that can come from the fair usance of links , quotation , and spiritualist communion . Articles 11 and 13 pose a direct threat to the weapons platform ’s power to go forward to run while large tech companies have the resourcefulness to engulf the cost of the legislation , were it to become law of nature — demonstrating the way the posting would actually gain the technical school overlords it was intended to rein in .
The fact is , we ’re exist in a important minute when lawmakers around the world are quickly realizing that big tech must be regulate in some path , and they ’re in a hurry to make something materialise . But they should be heed to the kind of people that signed the letter of opposition along with Berners - Lee when they ’re craft regularization . It ’s hard to amplify how surprising it is to see politico pull back from the verge of catastrophe and simply say “ let ’s reconsider this . ” But there ’s no guarantee that further thoughtfulness will produce a better outcome . This copyright directive learn people by surprise , and it did n’t have time to worm its way into the collective consciousness the way that , say , final disinterest has . It ’s more important than ever that activists keep this topic in the public conversation .
[ BBC ]
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