Copyright Directive

EU countries have approved copyright reforms that have been strongly supported by publishers. However, American technology giants and Internet freedom activists have opposed these changes, arguing that they can harm the free sharing of information. The revision of the directive has led to a strong lobbying on both sides.

Article 13 of the EU Copyright Directive foces companies on the internet to introduce new stringent automatic checks through which content must pass before it is posted on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

The European Parliament will vote today on the Copyright Directive, which, in an effort to protect copyright, risks changing the way social networks, content sharing platforms and search engines work, reports Dnevnik. 

The brave new path to a gatekeeper-manned, non-open internet the EU recently cut with its plainly atrocious new copyright directive was, were you to believe the general media coverage, cheered on by EU artists as a blow to Google and a boon to art because... well, nobody can actually explain that last part.

The approval by the European Parliament of the much-discussed European Copyright Directive according to which major internet companies will have to pay to content providers for copyright and related rights, is the right decision. 

318 votes against and 278 votes in favor of MEPs rejected the contested copyright directive, whose opponents claim to risk imposing unprecedented censorship on the Internet. The project was returned to a committee where it will be seen again in the autumn. The draft proposed by the EU was endorsed with some amendments by a legal commission in June.