Articles 11 and 13 have been rejected by the EU! · 3:21pm Jul 5th, 2018

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/05/article-13-eu-lawmakers-vote-on-controversial-copyright-law.html
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/article-13-eu-copyright-directive-memes
https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3035406/eu-rejects-article-13-article-11-copyright-law
https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/5/17535874/eu-copyright-law-article-11-13-rejected-first-vote

WE DID IT ...For now

Protests against the absolutely ghastly “European Directive for Copyright in the Digital Single Market,” and specifically Articles 11 and 13, which would have forced internet hosting platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and, of course, FiMFiction, as well as any other site that bases itself upon user-uploaded content to police its users uploads and delete anything that may have infringed copyright, has been rejected by the EU parliament at large.

While people who pushed for the bill, such as the absolutely muculent Axel Voss, suggested that this wouldn’t have led to the mass censorship of things like memes, remixes, covers, parodies, fanart, fanfiction, and other artistic endeavors, he is, of course, an old, shortsighted fuckstain who doesn’t understand how the internet works. People of his ilk suggested that there was nothing in the bill that necessitated the use of upload filtering algorithms and bots. And that’s true... BUT... naturally, the user/upload base of any of these websites is too large for the websites to patrol user uploads and properly check them for copyright infringement with actual humans who understand the concept of fair use and other non-infringing content. It’s just not feasible. So the only recourse, should these platforms be declared responsible for what their users upload, would be to resort to those kinds of bots and algorithms.

Thankfully, at least for now, the EU has actually deigned to listen to its citizens (for once) and backed off, probably because they recognized that, at least in the directive’s current form, they were playing with fire. And out of fear of sparking a second French Revolution upon their collective asses, they’ve sent the directive back to the drawing board.

But we need to remain watchful of this sort of thing because it isn’t the end of it. I mean it when they said they’ve simply sent it “back to the drawing board.” It hasn’t been destroyed, it’s going back to be rewritten. So we all need to pay attention when it comes back to make sure that the most dangerous parts of the directive, particularly Articles 11 and 13, have been either written out, or changed enough that they can pass safely.

They’re going to be rewriting this over the next few months and bring it back out again between September 10th and September 13th. Everybody be sure to continue to spread the word and watch for when it pops back up. Hopefully next time it won’t be as disastrous.

Until then, Pony on, brothers.