If you’re a longtime reader (first-time caller) of FYeahCopyright, you’ll know that we’re not the alarmist sort. We don’t traffic in rumors, and we look at the cases and the laws (or proposals) that we discuss.
That being said, if you’re a citizen of an EU country, it’s time to get cranky with your representatives, and hope that we can change things around re certain copyright laws that are expected to pass in January when they’re up for a final vote.
Here’s a summary of what will change on the internet if the final vote affirms today’s vote.
In the US, companies have grown in and by hosting user-created content – fanfic, memes, photos, videos, audio clips, VR and so much more – but the EU regulation includes NO exception/carve out/safe harbor for user generated content, or works in the public domain (France, for example, has Moral Rights rules that apply re authors of public domain works). But hey, certain corporations are happy because it creates new rights for sports events, and some new rights for publishers.
There is a carve-out for “non-commercial” entities including “encyclopaedias” – but not databases or other informational resources, nor creative content. The battles will be fought over the definitions – and there could be a separate battle in each country.
The tech doesn’t exist to support whatever it is the EU is trying to do – the same way the tech isn’t there to support certain aspects of the GDPR (like deletion requests without authenticating identity (see Spotify’s issues of this week)). Will all sites have to buy/lease/subscribe to whatever algorithms and filters Google has created? (Will Google create a “free to nonprofits & schools & maybe certain governments” provision like the one they’ve done for Google ads? Should sites share data with Google to be in compliance with the laws of every EU country?)
Even now, algorithmic filters can’t figure out what qualifies as parody (and with each EU country having a different definition…. oy!). Will the filters be used to curtail free speech, or surveil users, or engage in corporate espionage (or any other type)?
Here’s what Cory Doctrow wrote about the impact of this law on all the content we create and share. One bit of it is this:
We’ll fight in Europe’s courts, too: there’s no way that asking multinational corporations to send all of our communications to American data-centres to be analysed by algorithms and arbitrarily censored passes European constitutional muster.We’ll fight in the 28 European parliaments when they sit to make national legislation.
We’ll fight in the upcoming elections.
Hell, even if we’d won tonight’s fight, we’d have to keep fighting.The fight to keep the internet free and open isn’t a fight you win, it’s a fight you commit yourself to.
Here’s what my friends at Public Knowledge have to say:
Web services large and small might decide to implement the directive globally, which would diminish American users’ capacity to share memes, political satire, or news articles online.
Will this Directive apply to all websites?
No, “small” companies and nonprofits with under 50 employees and under 10 million euros on their balance sheets won’t have to be in full compliance on the filters, etc. However, any site that uses a cloud-based service like AWS (Amazon) or Google’s Cloud for storing files could find that usage massively limited because Amazon, Google, etc., are definitely not small companies, which would increase the cost for sites to stay online, get server space, etc.
It’s almost impossible to really calculate the impact on sites like GoodReads, Pinterest, (Lyrics) Genius, etc.
And if you’re wondering what impact Fair Use will have, well, unfortunately, Fair Use – the way we know it in the US, the way it’s used by Fanfiction.net and @wattpad and @ao3org – doesn’t exist in Europe; while the 2001 EU Copyright Directive includes a list of copyright infringement exceptions, a 2015 White Paper recommended that EU countries expand from ‘fair dealing’ to Fair Use and allow flexibility in the interpretation of exceptions and limitations, that flexibility doesn’t currently exist. If it did, some of the problems created by today’s vote would be mitigated.
SO SHOULD WE PANIC NOW?
No. If you’re a citizen (or resident) of an EU country, reach out to your reps. Explain to them how this law will impact you personally; tell your story. Get involved with a national organization that is fighting against this law, and one that’s ready to push back against it in the courts – especially where it can curtail free speech, which is a fundamental right held by all EU residents.
Pushing against this Directive doesn’t mean you support piracy or counterfeiting of creative works like films, books or photographs. It means, though, that you want creativity, science, communications and education to thrive online, just as they have for almost thirty years.
just a word of thanks and appreciation to all the fic writers out there. you all work so hard.
writing is hard, and i don’t mean that because writer’s block sucks. but writing is a craft and a skill, even if people think it’s easy b/c we learn it as we grow up. and fanfiction writers work hard and hone this skill and produce work using this skill and this craft–for free.
you all do amazing work, every single writer, regardless of if i’ve read your writing or not. you have put in astounding effort. you should be proud of your art.
there’s a lot of tags going around for x fic or x author, but i want to say that i hope all fanfiction writers take a moment to love their writing. to love the time and work and effort that they put into their writing. the product is lovely, but so is all of your skill and labor.
writing can be thankless. it’s a hard medium to love. it can be an unforgiving medium. but it’s also a beautiful one. it’s hard to learn and it’s hard to work with, but it produces beautiful art.
thank you to every single fanfiction writer. you’ve taken the time and effort to develop a difficult skill to produce art.
HELLS KITCHEN MOVIE CLUB is BACK! With PREDATOR, and guest line artist Ryan Howe (www.daisyblackwood.com)! Colour art by @deecunniffe, and blame me as always for words/letters.
James Rhodes, a pianist, performed a Bach composition for his Youtube channel, but it didn’t stay up – Youtube’s Content ID system pulled it down and accused him of copyright infringement
because Sony Music Global had claimed that they owned 47 seconds’ worth
of his personal performance of a song whose composer has been dead for
300 years.
Just last week, German music professor Ulrich Kaiser posted his research
on automated censorship of classical music, in which he found that it
was nearly impossible to post anything by composers like Bartok,
Schubert, Puccini and Wagner, because companies large and small have
fraudulently laid claim to their whole catalogs.
Europeans have one week to contact their MEPs to head off this catastrophe.
Stop what you’re doing and contact two friends in the EU right now and send them to Save Your Internet – before it’s too late.
vvinterdumpling.home.blog 