This article was published on April 15, 2019

2/3 of EU states voted for atrocious Copyright Reform — now all will have to adopt it


2/3 of EU states voted for atrocious Copyright Reform — now all will have to adopt it

The absolute final vote on the incredibly controversial Copyright Reform was held today, with 19 EU member states voting in favor of making it EU law.

Despite the Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Finland, and Sweden voting against the Copyright Reform — and Estonia, Belgium, and Slovenia abstaining — it’ll now be mandatory for all EU countries to implement the law at a national level. This will include the most controversial parts of the directive: Article 11 (aka link tax) and Article 13 (aka upload filters).

 

No matter which side of the issue people were on, pretty much everyone was in favor of updating copyright law to better reflect our current digital environment. However, there was a deep disagreement when it came to the implementation, with opponents of the directive arguing it would harm free speech, open source, open platforms like Wikipedia and Reddit, and Miley Cyrus’ ability to wish her husband a happy birthday.

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Publishers in Europe have welcomed the decision and called for a quick implementation. The EU Commission is also happy with the result and claims it “will boost high-quality journalism in the EU and offer better protection for European authors and performers.”

EU member states will now have two years to adopt the directive into their national legislation. Countries will have some leeway when it comes to enforcement, but it’s hard to see how governments could do that without imposing link tax and upload filters — so, the worst case scenarios might very well come to fruition.

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