Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market

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   makingamarkposted 5 years ago

   Closely following on from GDPR, we have the "Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market" which goes to a vote in the European Parliament today.
   
   Strikes me that HubPages ought to be VERY interested in this given it proposes to make some fairly radical changes which will affect the use of the internet for all those who live or work in the EU and all those who use internet resources which are based in the EU.
   
   There are no exceptions for everyday user-generated content (such as that provided on HubPages) with respect to the proposals for
   * the "link tax" for verbatim use of snippets and
   * removes the "safe harbour" exemption from copyright infringement given to online content sharing service providers - and requires the introduction by such hosts of "copyright infringement filters" to identify all copyright infringements. Although nobody has yet invented the machine which recognises legal "fair use" exemptions!
   
   Wikipedia have won a hard fought exemption for storing content in terms of exemptions for non-profit online encyclopaedias, non-profit platforms for the development of open source software, and non-profit educational and scientific repositories.
   
   Note the big emphasis on the use of "non-profit"
   
   However Wikipedia is very much against what it considers to be very heavy handed and badly constructed legislation which will have a major impact on who can put what on the Internet.
   
   Given HubPages has a very American orientation, I guess like other American companies it will not be up to speed with this - as per the phenomenon that happened with GDPR.
   
   Who would blame them? Wikipedia only found out about it relatively recently and has had its lawyers in fighting mode ever since - and it's a "non-profit"!
   
   These articles are helpful to understanding what's going on (I note there is no hub about this!)
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive … gle_Market
   https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/06/c … tax-battle
   https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/0 … _blackout/
   https://juliareda.eu/eu-copyright-reform/
   https://juliareda.eu/eu-copyright-refor … ews-sites/
   https://juliareda.eu/eu-copyright-refor … -machines/
   
   I understand Wikipedia is planning a blackout for today - which has already started in Italy.
   
   PS There are some good aspects to the intent behind the Directive e.g. in terms of enabling those who produce creative content (authors, musicians, artists) to have more effective measure to stop copyright infringement. However the Directive as drafted is very much geared towards satisfying major corporate entities - notably the newspaper publications and the music industry - and very much NOT oriented towards the everyday "man in the street" content creator.

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2. 69

   makingamarkposted 5 years ago

   As it happens, this proposed new Directive got voted down by the EU Parliament because of the objections that were mobilised at the last minute - primarily because of the two contentious clauses outlined above.
   
   Doesn't mean the EU won't try again....
   
   It is very definitely relevant to HubPages. Worth keeping on the radar?

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      theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Definitely worth keeping an eye on. It's almost as if the EU wants to create a firewall between itself and the rest of the world.

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3. 69

   makingamarkposted 5 years ago

   No - it's as the EU wants to make itself into the United States of Europe!
   
   Anyway, I think they gave up waiting for the big providers i.e. Google YouTube, Facebook etc to get their act together to make the Internet work the way it should and decided that their muscle is enough to get them focused on what needs doing.
   
   It's working so far. Google and Amazon now jump to command!
   
   All they need to do is remember to stop getting megalomaniacal about it and remember to consult properly with people other than large economic entitles and realise that sometimes what they propose has an utterly dire effect on individual users and those operating below SME level.
   
   e.g. their decision re. VAT on all digital products which was designed to catch tax avoidance by Amazon and others and instead clobbers all sole traders and  creates a complete nightmare!

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