…the European Parliament passed a directive to overhaul copyright law in the European Union and put more pressure on the likes of Google, Facebook, and Instagram to keep copyrighted material like photos and videos off their platforms.
Touted to bring copyright law into the digital the age many believe recently passed laws put forward in the European Parliament are a gigantic affront to our online freedoms.
Article 11 of the new legislation is being described as a “link tax”, allowing publishers charge platforms for using or displaying portions of their content. The change would result in the removal of any pre-amble from search results for news content heavily diminishing the quality of any news related search within the EU. It’s not the first time it’s been tried before. Both Spain & Germany have introduced a similar link tax on their own and both times it’s failed miserably.
Of larger concern is Article 13 (later changed to Article 17) known as the “meme-killer” in which the onus for copyright protection is placed on the service facilitating its publishing on the internet. This, many believe, will mean the implementation of upload filters to look for and remove any potentially copyright infringing content before it’s served.
Websites that make use of or have a high volume of meme content such as Reddit could cease to exist in the EU under such heavy legislation and the costs of implementing such systems prohibit tech growth within the EU.
Now passed it’s up to each EU member nation to draft and implement their own interpretation of the legislation within 24 months.
Source: Europe’s New Copyright Law Could Be Bad for Memes | WIRED