So, Bad News · 9:31pm Sep 12th, 2018
In case you missed it, it looks like the infamous internet directives proposed to the European Union has passed its initial vote. What this means, in effect, is that not only will there be a “link tax” forcing sites to pay for licenses to link to news articles (a law already implemented to disastrous results in Germany), but also a mandate that internet hosts put up content filters to automatically check for copyright violations, similar to the infamous ContentID algorithm already in place on YouTube. This, as it sounds, is bad. Real bad. It could change the internet as we know it, and hardly in a good way.
That said, this doesn’t mean the fight against censorious internet policies is over. It still has to pass a second vote that will come in the next few months, and even if it passes the final vote it is overwhelmingly likely to be challenged in European courts. Some powerful internet conglomerates are opposing the measure, and while it’s extremely painful for me to to side with evil megacorporations like Google and Facebook, it does mean we’re likely to see the most powerful players on the internet trying to undermine this.
Not only that, but it’s important to keep in mind that EU directives are very different things from EU regulations, in that directives can’t be enforced by the EU itself, and each member state is left to decide how they want to implement it. In practice, directives are often ignored by member states, with the rationalization that their goals are already covered by national laws. If the fight for internet freedom fails in the EU itself, then there’s still one to be had in each of the nations represented in it. (And, finally, I’d be remiss to avoid mentioning that there are also other ways of combating unjust copyright laws, but I don’t think I can talk about that in too much detail here.)
If there’s anything more to say on this matter, it’s probably already been better said by writer and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow, who has an excellent Twitter thread here that explains what this means and what to do next.
In the meantime, it might be better to be prepared. Back up the things you have online that you want to keep, because their future is uncertain. While it’s unlikely that this directive will affect most works on this site, it’s far better to play it safe in case of the worst.
People will always finds ways to disappoint other people.
Let's hope for the best.
Remember though there is one more vote for it next year. So Don't worry to much about it yet.