WIKIORG policy update/2018-w27
This is ORG's Policy Update for the week beginning 02/07/2018.
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ORG’s work
Parliament
Other National developments
””Sir Paul McCartney has joined the music industry’s efforts to reform EU copyright rules”
British musician Paul McCartney has encouraged legislators to pass the Copyright Directive to protect music-makers, songwriters and musicians. The measure according to McCartney would protect creators and publishers work online. Article 13 is forcing tech giants such as Google, Youtube and other various social media sites to install “effective technologies” to identify if user-generated content (UGC) on their platforms infringes on existing copyrighted material. The provision would end YouTube’s exploitation of safe harbor loopholes across Europe. Google would have to eliminate the “value gap,” thus ensuring the music industry receives fair payouts for artists’ works. ORG has previously criticised Article 13 for being a form of “censorship”. The Open Rights Group, pushing MEPs to sink the initiative, wrote on Twitter, “If #Article13 passes, it will change the way that the Internet works, from free and creative sharing, to one where anything can be instantly removed, by computers.” On the 5th July 2018, MEPs rejected the EU Copyright Directive.
The vote on the legislation has seen it thrown out by a majority of 318, against 278 in favour and 31 abstentions.
This has been a joy for meme fans as the battle for them has won, but is still a despair for music right organisations who must wait for the second vote this September.
Media coverage
See ORG Press Coverage for full details.
2018-07-03-RT.com- [https://www.rt.com/news/431636-italian-wikipedia-copyright-law-eu/ Italian Wikipedia goes dark in bid to save memes and remixes from new EU online copyright law] Author: Summary: Italian Wikipedia blocked readers from accessing content on its site in protest to a new EU online copyright law due to be voted on later this week. ORg expressed their concerns for this via Twitter describing this as “censorship”. Topics: Data protection Copyright
2018-07-05-iq-mag- “A SETBACK BUT NOT THE END”: RIGHTS BODIES LAMENT ARTICLE 13 DEFEAT Author: Jon Chapple Summary: Lawmakers have rejected the controversial EU Copyright Directive. However, music organisations expressed how they are confident in their success after the second vote which will occur in September 2018. Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group, calls “round one of the robo-copyright wars” “The EU parliament has recognised that machine censorship of copyrighted material is not an easy and simple fix. They’ve heard the massive opposition, including internet blackouts and 750,000 people petitioning them against these proposals.“Everyone across Europe who wants this fixed will have to work hard to make sure that parliament comes up with a sensible way forward by September.” Topics: Data protection Copyright