Copyrights in the digital age

Copyrights in the digital age

What was debated?

The directive on 'Copyright in the Digital Single Market' is about the modernization of copyright within the . Critics were opposed to two specific parts of this law: Commission wanted to change the legislation in the current digital age. Not illogical, because between 2001 and 2019 a lot has of course changed on a digital level. The revised guidelines aim to adapt copyright rules to the modern reality of social media, video content, etc. This is to protect copyright protected works much better. With the advent of social media, streaming services, etc., we now all share content en masse, which in theory often violates copyright.

Article 15 (first Article 11): link tax

Article 15 is especially in favor of online publishers or online media companies (eg news sites). For them, the 'link tax' is a new way to make money when platforms such as Facebook and Google link to their content. This through license fees. It is also referred to as ' link tax' or 'link tax '.

Why? 
This change is due to the fact that many publishers or media companies invest time, money and effort for current content creation, and giants such as Google and Facebook are running away with profits because they offer large amounts of the copyrighted material. The changes evoke controversy. Opponents call it a "modern censorship machine" and fear that much creativity will be lost that way. They see it as a barrier between knowledge and art.

What will change for you? 

Nothing as a private user. Duplicating content was not allowed anyway. As a professional, do you have a website with references to press publications? From now on you can only use short pieces of text (snippets) to link to this. The major players or search engines will have to take out licenses with news publishers.

Article 17 (first art. 13): upload filters

Why? 
With this ' upload filter,' they must proactively prevent copyright material from being shared just like that. For many technology companies, this is a thorn in the eye, but especially for small platforms, this can be the death blow. Fortunately, measures have since been taken whereby the smallest players are not covered by this provision. Such 'upload filters' entail a lot of costs. According to the new law, technology companies must take measures together with the entitled parties to prevent the uploading of copyrighted videos, photos, and music. It was feared that this 'censorship' would ensure that small technology companies, in particular, would suffer and that nice content such as so-called 'memes' or parodies would no longer make it.

Petitions are circulating in various countries to oppose this article because it would be an obstacle to freedom of expression. The petition has been signed millions of times.