Article 13 and EU Copyright Law explained: This is how Europe will destroy the Internet

Summary

The EU Copyright Directive introduces significant changes to internet governance, aiming to protect copyright holders but sparking concerns over freedom of expression and innovation. Article 13 mandates online platforms to filter content, creating challenges for user-generated content legality and potentially stifling small creators and startups. Meanwhile, Article 11's 'link tax' compels payment for linking to publisher content. Critics argue these laws favor established media and could lead to automated surveillance, reduced privacy, and increased control by large corporations over smaller entities. The directive incites debate over balancing copyright protection and internet freedom, with notable opposition from tech firms and human rights advocates alike.

Highlights

• Article 13 could turn the internet into a tool for surveillance and control. 🔒
• Platforms are now liable for user-generated content, a big shift from past norms. ⚖️
• Automated upload filters might not distinguish between infringing and fair use content. 🤖
• Increased operational costs could squeeze out small online platforms. 💸
• Emergence of 'copyright trolls' could pose new challenges for creators. 🐉

Key Takeaways

• Article 13 introduces stringent rules for content filtering, shaking up the online platform landscape. 🎛️
• The directive places heavy burdens on platforms, making it tough for small startups to thrive. 🚫
• Article 11's 'link tax' could push big content aggregators like Google to exit European markets. 📉
• Critics fear increased surveillance and reduced privacy due to these new laws. 🔍
• The directive is seen as favoring big media corporations over individual creators. 🏢

Overview

The dawn of the EU Copyright Directive has many claiming the death of the free internet as we know it. By making platforms liable for the content posted by their users, Articles 13 and 11 introduce daunting changes. They enforce automated upload filters, risking the removal of legitimate content such as parodies or critiques. This shift from policing illegal uploads to preemptive content censorship has alarmed many, who foresee a stifling impact on free expression and creativity.

Article 11 brings about the controversial 'link tax', which requires platforms to pay for linking to publisher content. This rule could result in content aggregators exiting European markets, as seen with Google News in Spain. While intended to protect intellectual property, such measures threaten to narrow information access, challenging both consumers and creators globally. As traditional media giants are favored, smaller entities face potential extinction.

Critics argue these laws could lead to increased surveillance and control by big tech firms, with small businesses outsourcing filtering processes due to prohibitively high costs. Meanwhile, activists continue to rally against these changes, defending a fair and open internet. The battle between copyright protection and digital freedom remains in full swing, as the implications of these laws unfold across digital landscapes.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: The Impact of the European Copyright Directive The Dark Ages of the Internet have begun with the European Copyright Directive significantly altering how the Internet is used.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Shift of Responsibility to Online Platforms The chapter 'Shift of Responsibility to Online Platforms' delves into the legal shift where online platforms are now made responsible for user-generated content and its legality. Previously, the content creators bore the responsibility for legality. The new directive obligates platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter to actively monitor and censor content through automated filtering mechanisms, thus holding them accountable for content compliance.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Automated Upload Filters and Their Consequences The chapter discusses the implementation of automated upload filters, designed to detect infringing content online. However, these filters face challenges in distinguishing between infringing content and legitimate forms like parodies, satire, and commentary, which fall under fair use. To address the limitations of automated filters, Article 13 mandates platforms to create staffed systems to handle complaints regarding illegitimate content takedowns. The chapter also highlights how these requirements could lead to increased operational costs for platforms.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Economic Impact on Online Platforms This chapter discusses the economic impact of online platforms and how corporate gate-keepers reinforce their dominance. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple have a stronghold in Europe by utilizing legal barriers and costs to outprice competition. This environment favors big, established websites, making it challenging for small start-ups and new alternatives to attract investors due to the heightened risk of liability for copyright infringement.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Challenges for Content Creators and Start-ups The chapter explores the impact of stringent copyright laws on content creators and start-ups, highlighting how these laws favor established platforms by limiting competition. It discusses the negative consequences of Article 13, which grants excessive control to copyright holders. This control potentially stifles innovation and gives rise to copyright trolls, which pose a significant threat to smaller platforms. The chapter suggests that had such laws existed earlier, many modern internet technologies and platforms might not have developed.
• 03:00 - 03:30: The "Link Tax" and Its Implications The chapter titled "The 'Link Tax' and Its Implications" discusses the potential consequences of copyright law changes, primarily targeting independent creators and YouTubers. It warns that copyright holders might claim compensation from anyone using their content, putting significant pressure on independent creators and YouTube users in Europe, who would be presumed guilty until proven innocent. This could lead to a substantial loss of legal standing for YouTube creators in European countries.
• 04:00 - 04:30: Privacy Concerns and Compliance Costs The chapter titled "Privacy Concerns and Compliance Costs" discusses the implications of Article 11, which aims to impose a "link tax" on sites like Google and Facebook. This would require these platforms to pay publishers for linking to their content and displaying snippets, thumbnails, or excerpts. The chapter highlights the potential response of content aggregators like Google, who may choose to discontinue services in European countries rather than comply with the link tax. A historical precedent is cited with Google News shutting down in Spain in 2015 under similar circumstances.
• 04:30 - 05:00: Surveillance and Censorship Risks The chapter discusses the impact of surveillance and censorship on content publishers and creators, highlighting a decrease in traffic and a reduction in news diversity. It also explores the potential consequences for creators outside Europe, noting that European audiences may be blocked from accessing protected content. The possibility of YouTube introducing a tool to automatically restrict viewership of such content in Europe is also mentioned.
• 05:00 - 05:30: Comparison to Other Regulatory Impacts The chapter titled 'Comparison to Other Regulatory Impacts' discusses the potential consequences of news aggregators ceasing to show European content to European users. It highlights the concern that privacy might be significantly reduced as a result. The new Copyright Directive poses contradictory effects to the previously established GDPR, which was intended to protect the privacy of European internet users. The legal and technological demands of complying with the new copyright law could become too costly for small European businesses, forcing them to outsource content monitoring and filtering to larger global corporations based in China or the United States.
• 05:30 - 06:00: Emergence of Fake News and Global Reactions The chapter discusses the impact of copyright laws related to automated surveillance and upload filters. It emphasizes that such laws favor big publishers and established media, potentially leading to reduced content neutrality on the internet. Independent creators and journalists might struggle for visibility, and some websites may stop their services for European users.
• 06:30 - 07:00: Impact on Traditional Media and Industry Lobbying The chapter discusses the impact of governmental policies on traditional media and the lobbying actions of the industry. It details a specific instance where the US government's enactment of the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act led to platforms like Reddit and Craigslist shutting down their personals sections due to the potential liabilities. It also highlights how political power could potentially utilize copyright takedowns to censor opposition, citing Ecuador as an example where at least 74 DMCA notices were sent on behalf of various political entities.
• 07:30 - 08:00: Influence of Lobbyists on EU Decision Making The chapter discusses the influence of lobbyists on EU decision-making, with a focus on the impacts of copyright directives. There is concern that fake news could proliferate because they would be less affected by initiatives like the 'link tax' which legitimate news outlets might have to deal with. The severity of these copyright laws is highlighted by a denunciation from the United Nations Human Rights Council, which states that such measures requiring proactive content monitoring or filtering can violate the right to privacy.
• 09:00 - 09:30: Call to Action for Digital Rights The chapter discusses the implications of a proposed law concerning digital rights and its potential impact on various stakeholders. It highlights that U.S.-based news providers and content hosts could gain more power, but paradoxically, many of these entities oppose the law. The primary concern revolves around potential financial liabilities, particularly for companies like Google, which might have to pay hefty sums to the music industry due to existing claims. The chapter also touches upon the financial challenges faced by publishers and artists as traditional revenue streams are disrupted by the rise of Internet-based competition.

Article 13 and EU Copyright Law explained: This is how Europe will destroy the Internet Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 The Dark Ages of the Internet have begun. That’s how much the European Copyright Directive is going to change everything you used to know about the Internet. From place of ultimate individual empowerment, innovation, and freedom, Internet will now be a tool for automated surveillance and centralized control. The European Union’s Copyright Directive is another hit that is going to leave a mark on the face of the Internet. This is how Europe will destroy the Internet.
• 00:30 - 01:00 Traditionally, those who uploaded content were primarily responsible for its legality. This rule has been discarded. The directive makes online platforms liable for the content generated by their users. That means that on top of punitive and vaguely worded terms of services, Internet gate-keepers like Facebook, Google, or Twitter will be required by law to proactively monitor and censor content. These online platforms will be required by law to create automated mechanisms to filter
• 01:00 - 01:30 infringing content. Such technology would essentially turn into “upload filters”. These automated filters won’t be recognizing between infringing and legitimate content, like parodies, satire, commentary or other instances of fair use. To balance the flaws of automated upload filters, the directive also requires platforms to build staffed systems for filing complaints for illegitimate takedowns. All of these measures specified in Article 13 would significantly increase the costs
• 01:30 - 02:00 of running online platforms. The tight grip of corporate gate-keepers will be even further enforced. By pricing out their competition through legal barriers and costs, Google, Microsoft, Apple and other tech giants will reaffirm their dominance in Europe. Only big already established websites will be able take the burden of the copyright law. It will be difficult for small start-ups and new alternatives to find investors due to increased risk of liability for copyright infringement.
• 02:00 - 02:30 This will reduce the much needed competition to social media sites like Facebook or YouTube which have been abusing their dominant positions for years. This copyright law is so punitive it’s unlikely modern Internet-enabled technologies and platforms would exist if Article 13 had been in place before. Copyright holders are now granted an ultimate veto over platforms to determine what goes and what doesn’t. Emergence of copyright trolls is going to become a daily nightmare that small platforms
• 02:30 - 03:00 and independent creators won’t have means to deal with. Copyright holders will be able to claim remuneration from any party using their content in any way. YouTube creators are most likely going to be hit the hardest by this as they’ll be treated guilty until proven innocent not only by the YouTube’s own copyright system, but by the European law as well. YouTuber’s position in Europe is thus going to lose all legal ground.
• 03:00 - 03:30 Article 11 is going to grant publishers the so called “link tax”, which would require sites like Google and Facebook to pay publishers for hyperlinking their content and showing snippets, thumbnails, or excerpts from their articles. But it is very possible that content aggregators like Google will simply discontinue their services in European countries rather than pay the link tax. This has already happened to Google News in Spain in 2015, after the government mandated that Google pays publishers a fee for linking to their content.
• 03:30 - 04:00 In the end, content publishers suffered a decrease in traffic from 6 to 14 percent and news coverage became less diverse and more concentrated overall. Content creators from outside of Europe will also see significant decrease in viewership as European audience will automatically be barred from viewing protected content. It’s very likely that YouTube will develop a tool that will automatically block viewership of videos with protected content by audience from European countries.
• 04:00 - 04:30 News aggregators might end up not showing European content to European users anymore. Privacy will be significantly reduced. The Copyright Directive is going to have contradictory effects to GDPR that was set to protect privacy of European Internet users. Since much of the legal and technological requirements to abide by the new copyright law will be too expensive for small European businesses, they’ll have to outsource content monitoring and filtering to much bigger global corporations based in China or the United States.
• 04:30 - 05:00 This copyright law is thus a gateway to automated surveillance. There is no incentive from the directive to let legitimate content through the upload filter obligation. Big publishers and established media organizations will easily get priority over independent creators and journalists, which will result in further televization of Internet content. This will be Internet without content neutrality. Many websites will simply cut off their services to European users.
• 05:00 - 05:30 Similar case happened when the US government enacted the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act, which also holds platforms liable for the content generated by their users. Reddit and Craigslist simply shut down their personals’ sections because they couldn’t risk the costs of the new obligations. Political power will be able to censor much of their opposition by calling for copyright takedowns. Similar occasion happened in Ecuador where the government sent at least 74 DMCA notices on behalf of politicians, political parties, state media, and state agencies.
• 05:30 - 06:00 Fake news will see a new emergence as they would be less likely to claim “link tax” than legitimate news outlets. Implications of this copyright directive are so severe the United Nations Human Rights Council denounced these efforts saying: States and intergovernmental organizations should refrain from establishing laws or arrangements that would require the “proactive” monitoring or filtering of content, which is both inconsistent with the right to privacy and likely to amount
• 06:00 - 06:30 to pre-publication censorship. Enacting this law will shift the balance of power in favor of US-based news providers and content hosts. But even they were lobbying heavily against this law. Why? Because Google might be held liable to pay billions to music industry for their claims they make on various Google services, including YouTube. For two decades now, publishers and artists have been losing revenue from traditional streams due to emergence of Internet-based competition.
• 06:30 - 07:00 YouTube, iTunes, eBay, Spotify and other services have drastically changed how people consume media. Publishers and artists claim YouTube pays them too little for playing their music on their platform. While YouTube pays 67cents per user annually, Spotify rewards artists with $20 per user annually. Music artists would say this is a value gap that’s unacceptable. YouTube argues this revenue would otherwise not be generated, because it’s coming from people who would not pay for their music anyway.
• 07:00 - 07:30 Instead of adapting to the new environment, the industry decided to change the rules of the game that would benefit them. The key player influencing the vote in the European Parliament were German lobbyists. Axel Springer, a major German publisher, has for decades had close ties with German political class including Angela Merkel. Their Trojan horse, Günther Oettinger serves as a European Commissioner for Budget and
• 07:30 - 08:00 Human Resources and was a European Commissioner for Digital Economy. For years Oettinger was pushing for stricter copyright laws that would favor publishers like Axel Springer. The Chairman and CEO of Axel Springer, Mathias Döpfner, is a member of the European Publishers Council and president of the Federation of German Newspaper Publishers. Copyright lobbyists even infiltrated the circles around Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who were also joined by Swedish Bonnier, a media group of 175 companies in 15 countries,
• 08:00 - 08:30 Spanish PRISA, and Spain’s Prime Minister Mariono Rajoy. European Union wants to make Continental markets more resistant to the dominance of US corporations. But the cost of achieving this goal appears to be too high. This strategy aims to benefit European corporations more than it benefits European people. EU decision makers generally lack democratic accountability, so any major legal change
• 08:30 - 09:00 is in their hands, and the hands of the lobbyists. Internet users like you and me are just caught in the cross-fire between lobbyists from different industries and the politicians they are trying to influence. I would like to end this video with a quote from Cory Doctorow from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: We suffered a crushing setback today, but it doesn't change the mission… If this vote had gone the other way, we'd still be fighting today.
• 09:00 - 09:30 And tomorrow. And the day after. The fight to preserve and restore the free, fair and open Internet is a fight you commit yourself to, not a fight that you win. The stakes are too high to do otherwise. If you are looking to join the fight to take back the Internet, share this message on your platforms of choice. Subscribe to my channel and find out more about how you can take control of your digital rights.