What is EU Copyright Law Article 13 all about?

Now, in September, the law has been passed. While it is supposed to be a “revised one”, very few things have really changed. In particular, Article 11 and Article 13 still remains there. And many believe that these directives could not only hurt the freedom of internet but, in fact, choke it out of what internet was originally supposed to be.

Broadly put, Article 11 says that online aggregating companies like Facebook and Twitter would require to pay money to news outlets for hosting their contents on their platforms. Its key role is to prevent sharing links on social and open platforms without paying to the source of that link. Article 13 asks websites to implement copyright laws much rigorously. It asks them to filter out the copyright materials uploaded on their platforms that do not have the right license.

These articles are a blatant attempt to regulate not really the “copyright” part but the entire internet. Free flow of information, with minimal checks and measures, is what the internet is all about. Now, what EU is doing is to cork and guard the bottle, limiting the flow of contents in the garb of “copyright law”. And what’s even more surprising is that the legislation was passed by EU parliament by 437 to 226 votes. What are these “leaders” really thinking?

Social channels like Facebook and Twitter have emerged to be the biggest sources of news and other contents in recent times. Freely sharing contents is what really makes them ‘them’. This is one of the reasons why such platforms have amassed billions of users. Article 11 chokes this. Similarly, Article 13 wants to censor contents because they apparently aren’t “copyrighted”. This would literally kill the core definition of social distribution, and “viral” would become a thing of the past.

The EU copyright law with Article 11 and Article 13 isn’t good for anyone. Yes, the musicians, authors and other content creators may find the Article 13 as somewhat rewarding (for instance, Beatle’s Paul McCartney has supported it). But this happiness would be short-lived if the internet itself is found broken.

And this is what so many tech companies and tycoons have been contesting since EU copyright law has come in the news. The inventor of World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee has warned that these directives threaten internet freedom. Reddit and Wikipedia have criticised revamped EU Copyright law.

Here’s what a representative from Reddit said, “Today’s vote dealt a significant ***** to the open internet, and to smaller companies like Reddit… It is disappointing to see the Parliament disregard the concerns of those constituents and experts who know the internet best– including its very architects. We’re evaluating what this means for Reddit, and we will continue to keep our community informed.” Note, if these articles do come into effect, they will literally throttle the very existence of platforms like Reddit.

Of course, nothing is finalized now. Now, these amendments in the EU copyright law would be discussed and approved behind the closed doors between EU officials and the member states. Following that, they will go on vote again, likely in January 2019.

So, all hope isn’t lost. There’s still a lot that can happen. With tech leaders and internet users voicing their opinions soundly, the idea of link tax and upload filter could (and should) be nixed.