Article 17 | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Mon, 15 Apr 2019 13:46:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Article 17 | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 The EU’s controversial Copyright Directive has passed its final approval https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/damien-cox/the-eus-controversial-copyright-directive-has-passed-its-final-approval/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/damien-cox/the-eus-controversial-copyright-directive-has-passed-its-final-approval/#respond Mon, 15 Apr 2019 13:46:53 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=410258 Last month, Members of the European Parliament voted to pass the Copyright Directive, a document containing controversial legislation that enforces regulations across the internet. The new rules have now passed final approval, as member states support the debatably out-dated measures. Engadget reports that a majority of 19 European Council representatives voted in favour of the …

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Last month, Members of the European Parliament voted to pass the Copyright Directive, a document containing controversial legislation that enforces regulations across the internet. The new rules have now passed final approval, as member states support the debatably out-dated measures.

Engadget reports that a majority of 19 European Council representatives voted in favour of the new Directive, including both France and Germany, while Belgium, Estonia and Slovenia abstained. Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Poland voted against the measures. Unsurprisingly, Sweden also voiced its opposition after its MEPs declared that they had accidentally voted in favour of the reform during the initial vote, criticising the phrasing of the questions and their contradictory nature.

The new rules take aim at larger companies like YouTube and Facebook, which will now be required to obtain licenses before hosting copyrighted works. Policing this will also prove excruciating for both the platform and its user, as Article 17, previously known as Article 13, will force content to be approved through filters before uploading.

Journalists and news websites will also take a hit as Article 15, previously known as Article 11, will tax aggregators like Google News in order to pay the creators that it links to. A measure similar to this has previously been tested in Spain, causing Google to simply remove its News tab in the country. Ultimately, this hurt traffic and caused publication revenue to suffer. Unfortunately, smaller publications will feel this more than their larger counterparts, as there will be a limit on the amount of information that can be displayed from another source before that same tax kicks in.

EU countries have precisely 24 months to craft a new framework and ensure that companies operating within Europe comply.

KitGuru Says: The primary fear is that freedom of expression will be hindered; reducing internet culture that often displays itself in the form of GIFs and memes. On the business side of things, larger companies worry that the difficulty of monitoring content on such a large scale could prove difficult and result in many lawsuits to come. Do you think that the Copyright Directive could render the online space in Europe a ghost town?

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Swedish MEPs claim to have voted in favour of EU Copyright Directive by mistake https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/damien-cox/swedish-meps-claim-to-have-voted-in-favour-of-eu-copyright-directive-by-mistake/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/damien-cox/swedish-meps-claim-to-have-voted-in-favour-of-eu-copyright-directive-by-mistake/#respond Wed, 27 Mar 2019 14:09:46 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=408242 Yesterday, European Union member states voted to pass the new Copyright Directive by just five votes, seeing the implementation of controversial Articles 11 and 13, now known as Articles 15 and 17 respectively. Some members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are now claiming to have voted for the proposition by mistake as they simply wanted …

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Yesterday, European Union member states voted to pass the new Copyright Directive by just five votes, seeing the implementation of controversial Articles 11 and 13, now known as Articles 15 and 17 respectively. Some members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are now claiming to have voted for the proposition by mistake as they simply wanted to “open a debate.”

While most MEPs voted in favour of implementing some form of the Copyright Directive at 443 votes to 181, only 317 voted to keep the document exactly as it is while 312 wanted further amendments. This means that every vote counts more than ever in a result about as divisive as the UK’s choice to leave the European Union.

Sadly, MEPs from Sweden are now claiming that they pressed the wrong button and didn’t mean to support the passing of the bill as it stood. Before jumping to conclusions, it’s worth understanding just how confusing the terminology can be at times.

The initial vote was to reject the Copyright Directive as a whole, a motion that was ultimately rejected by the majority of downvotes. Due to this, the Swedish MEPs believed that the second vote was similarly to reject further amendments, which they voted in favour of. Unfortunately, the second vote actually pertained to the passing of the bill as a whole.

There are many instances where the European Union accepts notices to retroactively change a vote, but this does not seem to be one of those cases. Despite the MEPs filing to redact their submission, their votes will continue to stand, helping to implement some of the harshest copyright laws in the western world.

KitGuru Says: Politics and law have always had confusing terminologies, making it detrimental that politicians pay attention to what it is they are voting for. At the same time, the European Parliament could do with keeping some consistency when putting things up for debate.  

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European Parliament passes controversial Article 13 and Article 11 https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/damien-cox/european-parliament-passes-controversial-article-13-and-article-11/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/damien-cox/european-parliament-passes-controversial-article-13-and-article-11/#respond Tue, 26 Mar 2019 14:05:22 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=408166 The European Parliament has repeatedly tried to implement Article 11 and Article 13 as a part of its Copyright Directive overhaul, with the former being a “link tax” and the latter is set to introduce an intrusive upload filter. After a number of delays and changes to the text, member states have voted in favour …

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The European Parliament has repeatedly tried to implement Article 11 and Article 13 as a part of its Copyright Directive overhaul, with the former being a “link tax” and the latter is set to introduce an intrusive upload filter. After a number of delays and changes to the text, member states have voted in favour of the two, renaming them Article 15 and Article 17 respectively.

The plans were initially introduced in 2016 but gained attention last year for their radical approaches to copyright on the internet. Although the Directive has been highly contested, lambasted by the general public, yet declared a necessity by copyright holders.

Today’s vote showcased that the want for a new Copyright Directive is certainly there, as the proposal to dismiss the entire document was rejected with 443 votes against and 181 in favour. The vote to allow for further amendments was much closer, with just 312 in favour compared to 317 against.

With 348 Members of Parliament in favour of the document as it currently stands and just 274 against, the European Parliament has adopted the new Copyright Directive, containing the newly named Article 15 and Article 17.

Under Article 17, previously known as Article 13, sites that host user-generated content that have been available for more than three years, earn over €10 million and have more than five million unique monthly visitors will be required to either actively license content from the original copyright holders or purge all copyrighted material from their servers. This will likely require the likes of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to utilise an upload filter in order to police the matter, automatically rejecting content before it is uploaded.

It is this article in particular Article that people fear will be the death of memes, but the European Parliament has stated that the internet phenomenon should be “specifically excluded” from the new Directive. It remains to be seen how this is possible if member states implement a nationwide filter, however. Similarly, cloud storage services are exempt, as well as loopholes that allow for parody.

Article 15, previously known as Article 11, is the colloquially dubbed “link tax” that targets aggregator sites, such as the Google News tab, and forces them to pay original content creators to host their link. This is a move that has already failed when trialled in Spain, as Google simply removed its News tab in the country, ultimately resulting in diminished traffic and therefore ad revenue for the individual publications.

It’s uncertain how this will work as it stands, however publications using hyperlinks with individual words won’t be affected and neither will “legitimate private and non-commercial use of press publications by individual users.”

Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda has vocally opposed the decision throughout the debate, chastising the outcome as a “dark day for internet freedom” in the EU. Chief executive of Open Knowledge International, Catherine Stihler agreed, stating that we now “risk the creation of a more closed society at the very time we should be using digital advances to build a more open world where knowledge creates power for the many, not the few.”

Copyright holders are pleased with the outcome, with chief executive of PRS for Music Robert Ashcroft describing the move as “a massive step forward. It’s about making sure that ordinary people can upload videos and music to platforms like YouTube without being held liable for copyright – that responsibility will henceforth be transferred to the platforms.”

Accompanying the ordinary legal mumbo jumbo is a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty, which is the main point of contention even after the European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market has been approved. Once member states begin pushing the reform, perhaps they won’t be so bad. Or perhaps it’ll be much worse.

KitGuru Says: Do you have any thoughts on the new Copyright Directive?

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