Will EU Copyright Break the Internet?

The parliament of the European Union narrowly voted down legislation intended to control copyright violations on the internet. The sponsors of the legislation argued that multinational internet companies like Google were essentially stealing content from newspapers and publishers. Their proposed fix would have levied what critics called a “link tax” on hyperlinked content, making it prohibitively expensive for a program like Google News to aggregate news content. In addition, the rules would have essentially forced platforms like Youtube that rely on user-uploaded content, like Youtube, to put in place content filters to screen out copyrighted content. However, the expense of these filters and regulatory compliance would have, ironically, given the major companies an advantage over smaller startups, leading to a less competitive internet. In addition, the content filters would have accidentally excluded legitimate non-copyrighted material, including memes, parodies, and covers. Although this was European legislation, the legislation has implications for American regulatory policy, including the new SESTA/FOSTA rules.

Further Readings/References:

• In this article, Mike argues that this legislation would turn the internet into tv, “a limited broadcast medium only for those who are pre-checked by gatekeepers.”
• Any content filter will accidentally exclude legitimate conflict. Here Mike crunches the potential false positive rate.
• Paul has argued before that the SESTA/FOSTA legislation will have ill unintended consequences.
• One of the most important opponents of this legislation has been European Parliament member Julia Reda, representative of the Pirate Party.

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