The European Parliament has approved the controversial reform of copyright rules for online content. The legislation increases the liability for internet platforms accepting content uploaded by users as well as provides for increased remuneration for publishers from online aggregators. The text still needs formal approval from the Council of EU states before becoming law, after which EU members will have two years to implement the changes in national law.
The reform of the copyright directive to bring it up to date for the internet age has been under discussion by the EU institutions for over two years, after the European Commission first proposed changes in August 2016. A breakthrough was reached in February based on a compromise brokered by France and Germany. Despite significant opposition from the internet industry as well as civil society groups concerned about limits on freedom of expression, the text was adopted by MEPs in plenary by 348 votes in favour, 274 against and 36 abstentions. An attempt to open the text to amendments was rejected.
The proposal has raised opposition due to two controversial clauses: article 11 creating a right for publishers to be compensated when online aggregators like Google News reproduce snippets of their news and information, and article 13 on the liability of online platforms when users upload copyright protected material without authorisation, such as YouTube.
'Very short' news clips copyright free
After threats from Google that the changes could spell the end of Google News, the Parliament allowed "very short" pieces of news to remain available for aggregators to use without compensating copyright-holders. It will be up to the publishers to negotiate compensation for longer extracts used by online portals.
Uploading protected works for quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody or pastiche are protected even more than before, according to a statement from the Parliament. The text ensures that memes and Gifs will continue to be available and shareable on online platforms, and works uploaded to online encyclopedias in a non-commercial way, such as Wikipedia, or open source software platforms, such as GitHub, will automatically be excluded from the scope of this directive. To protect academic collaboration, copyright restrictions will not apply to content used for teaching or illustration.
Upload content licensing
As for article 13, internet platforms will be made directly liable for infringing content posted to their platforms by users. The aim is to encourage them to sign licence agreements with copyright holders, rather than merely removing illegal material later after a signal from users or the copyright holder. This will help rights holders to obtain fairer remuneration for the use of their works online, the Parliament said. To protect start-up companies, the directive provides exemptions for the first three years for new companies and if their number of monthly users remains below 5 million.
Opponents expect the high cost of assessing uploaded material for potential copyright infringement may lead some companies to resort to automatic software, or so-called 'upload filters'. These may be overly cautious in filtering out material in order to minimize legal exposure and could lead to some legitimate material being blocked and limits on freedom of expression on online platforms. "With dangerous potential for automatised censorship mechanisms, online content filtering could be the end of the internet as we know it," said the consumer rights group EDRi.
The Computer and Communications Industry Association, one of the main industry lobby groups opposing the new directive, said it was disappointed that its efforts to improve the text had not paid off. "Despite recent improvements, the EU Directive falls short of creating a balanced and modern framework for copyright," said the CCIA in a statement. "We fear it will harm online innovation and restrict online freedoms in Europe. We urge Member States to thoroughly assess and try to minimize the consequences of the text when implementing it."
