Unlike their counterparts in the U.S. who seem content with a creaky DMCA law more than 2 decades old, members of the European Council passed a directive to move copyright law into the digital age:
The Council today adopted a directive that modernises existing EU copyright law to pave the way towards a true digital single market. The new rules ensure adequate protection for authors and artists, while opening up new possibilities for accessing and sharing copyright-protected content online throughout the European Union.
It’s refreshing to see the rights of creators be taken seriously in spite of withering, and predictable, pushback from tech interests and their various astro-turf groups. Finally Google and others will actually have to arrange for proper licenses before monetizing the work of others.
Despite the well-oiled talking points hurled at the new directive, its passage will not “break” the internet:
Freedom on the internet, as in the real world, will continue to exist as long as the exercise of this freedom does not restrict the rights of others, or is illegal. This means that a user will be able to continue uploading content to internet platforms and that these platforms will be able to continue hosting such uploads, as long as the platforms respect the creators’ right to fair remuneration. Currently, the online platforms remunerate creators on a voluntary basis and only to a very limited degree, because they are not liable for the content they host and therefore have little to no incentive to strike deals with rights holders.
The directive will not censor. By increasing legal liability, it will increase pressure on internet platforms to conclude fair remuneration deals with the creators of work through which the platforms make money. This is not censorship.
Meanwhile, U.S. Congress remains under big tech’s thumb
Too bad our representatives in Washington seem uninterested in tackling this issue. It’s ironic to note that had Congress take action to rein in big tech, by establishing reasonable regulations mirroring those in the brick and mortar world, the institution itself would probably be a much more effective governing entity today. Instead our nation has spun into a miasma of social media manipulation and misinformation. Where Europe has stepped up, the US has fallen further and further behind.
Reasonable rules have always been the hallmark of civilized society and by allowing an entirely new online ecosystem to form (and fester) outside the bounds of legal scrutiny, a Pandora’s box was opened. It may be too late to close it