European Parliament webplayer dedicated to Live events
This is a video recording of the press conference of 12 September 2018 regarding the adoption of the new Copyright Directive. The conference was presented by a panel consisting of Axel VOSS, Virginie ROZIÈRE and Helga TRÜPEL. It’s an interesting conference as it shows the other side of the coin, the European Parliament’s viewpoint in adopting the new Copyright Directive. However, I must admit that I wasn’t convinced with the panel’s explanations since they didn’t respond to most of the challenges posed by the new directive. In this post, I’ll be sharing my opinions on the press conference and the challenges of the new Copyright Directive.
To begin with, one of the most significant challenges of the new Copyright Directive is censorship. As explained in this post by Cory Doctorow and in this letter sent to the European Parliament by some of the most influential names in the history of the internet, the directive flips the liability principle under the E-Commerce Directive and makes the “online content sharing service providers” liable for copyright infringement. The panel could have adopted a clearer stance in responding to this problem, but instead mainly focused on criticising the lobbying activities that they had to endure during the process.
It almost sounds like the Parliament’s decision was made in a vindictive manner, as a mere reaction towards the lobbying conducted by the US-based internet giants. It is true that the US lobbying in this matter was criticised (see this article). Still, I believe it would be a better approach if the panellists detailed the rationale of their decision, rather than focusing on the difficulty of working under lobbying stress or labelling everyone that sent emails to the parliament as mere spammers.
For example, at some point, Ms Trüpel mentions that “The European Union won’t have to sue little kids anymore” since under the new Copyright Directive Youtube will be responsible in case of a copyright infringement instead of individual uploaders. However, although the kids won’t be sued anymore, platforms like Youtube will have to adopt stricter filtering systems that will have results akin to censorship. If the “online content sharing service providers” are held liable for the content they make available, it is highly probable that they would choose not to take any risks and basically remove any content that could potentially cause liability for them. This kind of an attitude would restrict the internet culture we have and are very fond of today.
Finally, the panel suggests that the Copyright Directive aims to protect creators by ensuring that they are compensated for their work. However, I believe such a problematic directive should not be the best option that the European Union comes up with to compensate creators. I believe that, somehow, they could do much better than that.
Let’s hope that they will change their minds in the future.
