A new EU law could change the online world forever by effectively banning memes, remixes and other content which incorporate copyrighted material.
The rules are contained in Article 13 of the Copyright Directive and are controversial because they demand platforms take measures to ensure the functioning of agreements concluded with rights-holders for the use of their works, meaning that large-scale censorship would be the only way of enforcing the law, the Metro newspaper reported.
Most of the internet’s famous memes would be affected and it would be illegal to ‘Rick Roll’, for instance, because it involves sending a clip from Rick Astley’s copyrighted pop song.
You might think this law would be impossible to police, but in fact, it could be relatively easy. All platforms like Facebook or YouTube need to do is automatically scan all uploaded content to see if it breaks copyright law or contains banned hate speech and then pull it down.
This could lead to the creation a ‘computer says no’ world where people whose opinions contravene the corporate giants will find it very difficult to publish online.
A vote on the new laws takes places later this month and activists are warning that the results could change the web forever.
The campaign group Save Your Internet wrote: “The European Commission and the Council want to destroy the Internet as we know it and allow big companies to control what we see and do online.”
Should Article 13 of the Copyright Directive proposal be adopted, it will impose widespread censorship of all the content you share online. The European Parliament is the only one that can step in to save the Internet.
