Vote On EU Copyright Directive Is Imminent

A controversial update to EU copyright rules goes before the European Parliament for a vote this week. A petition opposing it attracted more signatures than any other petition in change.org’s history. After being discarded as unworkable, two divisive clauses, articles 11 and 13, were reintroduced in the final directive. Both have been roundly criticized by experts in technology, copyright law, journalism, and human rights. Article 11 tries to give news companies a negotiating edge with Google, Facebook and other big platforms that aggregate headlines and excerpts and refer users to the news companies’ sites. Under Article 11, text that contains more than a “snippet” from an article are covered by a new form of copyright, and must be licensed and paid by whoever quotes the text. Article 13 removes protection for online services and relieves rights holders of the need to check the Internet for infringement and send out notices. Instead, it says that online platforms have a duty to ensure that none of their users infringe copyright. It is the most controversial part of the Copyright Directive.