What is article 13 and how our lives going to change after its approval?

On Tuesday 26 March 2019 by majority voices of Member of Parliament (MPs) "Directive on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market" [1] was approved. The new law is designed to contribute to the functioning of the internet market, provide for a high level of protection for right holders, and facilitate the clearance of rights. However, critics say that it will change the internet era in the current guise and even treat freedom of speech and expression.

What is the history behind?

This is not first attempting to present and establish united copyrights in digital technologies across the European Union. The initial law was adopted in 2001 as the Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC. Nevertheless, some of the parts of the harmonized legislation were not effective and appropriate for that time, thus in 2012, the European Commission stated that the previous version will be reviewed and the legal framework establishes by the end of 2015. Later the first draft of the initiated Directive was issued on 14 September 2016.

Instead of reopening the directive for debate, the decision was postponed till 12 September 2018 when a revised proposal was appointed. The final measure resulted from negotiations during Trilogue discussions was approved of 348 MPs to 278 against. The final step to becoming law in the EU will be approbation by the European Council on 9 April 2019. Afterwards, it will take approximately 2 years to implement and put the law in action.

Particular content and controversies

There are several articles that caused a tremendous wave of condemnation among various layers of society from simple users, artists to huge tech companies such as YouTube, Google. As a result, of conviction, that Directive can eliminate the right of the Internet users (basically most of us), likewise expand legal liability for the websites.

Article 4 focused on scientific research. It should make a distinct understanding of the exception or limitation for the educational establishments that are allowed to use of copyrighted works with the single purpose of illustration for teaching. Conversely, who is going to be under this category still unclear as well as the statement that the exception will be mitigated when there are adequate licenses available.

Article 11 (in the new version 15) referred as the "link tax", which would require research engines, publishers and aggregate sites to pay a tax to sites to whom they link. In practice, this would mean that for example, Google would need to pay money to the list news stories and other websites on its search engine. The idea behind is notable as it claims fair compensation for the digital usage of press publications, but for instance, it may be profitable solely for “big players”.

Opponents assert that Germany and Spain have tested a link tax, which can be considered as a failure. Moreover, they are emphasizing concerns about the effectiveness of the impact on the readership of online publications.

Article 13 (renumbered into 17) colloquially called the "upload filter”, under which tech companies will be more liable for any copyrighted content. This is the most debated article due to fairs that it can stop users uploading copyrighted content without authorization, and turn into an instrument for total control of users. Counterparts convinced that user-generated content would be under risk as these can technically be seen as a violation of copyright. Meanwhile, the article does not include cloud storage services and already existing exemptions, including parody, thus memes.

On the other hand, supporters (record labels, artists and some media) said reforms were needed to update copyright protections for the new generation of internet and to ensure they're fairly paid for content.

The reaction of society

Society reacted immediately and massively. Already more than 5 million people already signed a petition “Stop the censorship-machinery! Save the Internet!” on the Change.org [6]. It is already on track to receive the record number of votes and become the largest petition during the whole history of the world! Unlike, since the figures cannot be independently checked, it’s impossible to track exactly the real people who are voting.

A number of public marches have been held in opposition to the proposed directive, but in most cases concerning Article 13. On 23 March 2019 wide protests covered whole Europe, mainly Germany where demonstrations took place in 40 cities (including Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt) with an estimated total number of 100 000 people.

It is believed, the protests are being organized by a grassroots movement and by such resources as #Save your internet [7] that gives an idea of how to remain active against the directive.

Overall, there are so many varying opinions about the law and it is the choice of everyone how to react and decide what to do in that case. Most importantly, is to look at the situation with a wide eye from several points of view and accept the needs of others.

For further information, check these sources:

1. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-8-2018-0245-AM-271-271_EN.pdf  
2. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-article-13-article-11-european-directive-on-copyright-explained-meme-ban
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_on_Copyright_in_the_Digital_Single_Market#Publishers
4. https://www.alphr.com/politics/1009470/article-13-EU-what-is-it-copyright
5. https://www.dw.com/en/european-parliament-to-vote-on-controversial-copyright-reform/a-48059824
6. https://www.change.org/p/european-parliament-stop-the-censorship-machinery-save-the-internet

7. https://saveyourinternet.eu/?noredirect=true