Now it's official: the EU copyright reform is through. With all their articles.

At the same time, old fears and half-true theses are coming out again: Is YouTube closing now? The answer is quite simple: NO. There is no reason for it either. Just as it is not about censorship or a restriction of freedom of expression in the direct sense.

The EU copyright reform has absolutely nothing to do with opinions and restricting freedom of expression, but rather it is about curbing copyright infringements. One symptom of this, however, is that content no longer appears if it contains material that violates copyrights.

What follows is not new; we already described it like this last winter:

In Article 13 of the EU copyright reform, platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook are held directly responsible for the copyright infringements of their users.

Basically, the EU copyright reform was of course controversial in the last few months up to its vote and is likely to represent a major turning point in the social media world, as a lot of content is likely to disappear due to copyright restrictions or the upload will be blocked directly.

Now decided!

The MPs adopted the directive on March 26, 2019 with 348 votes in favor, 274 against and 36 abstentions ( we reported ). This ends the legislative process for the European Parliament that began in 2016. It is now up to the Member States to approve Parliament's decision in the coming weeks.

If Member States approve the text adopted by the European Parliament, it will enter into force after publication in the EU's Official Journal. The member states then have two years to implement the provisions into national legislation.

On the one hand, it is about ancillary copyright law. So the question is whether Google or Facebook, for example, have to pay money for the preview snippets from newspapers and publishers or not (the so-called link tax). In the worst case scenario, it leads to censorship from the left - and we probably don't want that. However, Article 13 is much more in focus.

The aforementioned Article 13 (or now Article 17) in the new copyright law now affects uploads to platforms such as YouTube.

In the future, these uploads must be checked for copyright infringements, as the platform operator will be held responsible here. This can happen automatically, for example, using upload filters. Another way to circumvent filters can be through license negotiations between platform operators and rights holders.

However, these upload filters used by platforms are considered particularly critical . According to critics, there is a risk that overly cautious filters will prevent unauthorized content from being published. According to critics, that would be an infringement on freedom of expression. Valid point: how do upload filters distinguish between quotes and copyright infringement, for example? Are programs allowed to decide what content is published?

You also have to understand: It's also a lot about lobbying and a lot of money that content producers smell here (e.g. in the context of sporting events). So here two sides collide in the background, both of which want to make a lot of money.

Will my favorite YouTuber disappear now?

In principle, it would be a conceivable option for YouTube to block channels from the EU in order to prevent any legal violations here. However, we also consider this to be a threatening gesture. It feels as if YouTube is currently setting fire to the influencers operating on the platform, who in turn are instilling fear in users. It is doubtful whether all the channels will disappear.

Statements like individual YouTubers make that they won't be around in the future are nonsense. An upload filter cannot work (unless it works incorrectly) if there is no copyright violation.

[vc_message message_box_color=”grey” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-info”] You shouldn’t forget: YouTube has been using an upload filter for a long time! [/mk_info]

A second, more realistic possibility: these upload filters will be made more strict in the future, i.e. in case of doubt, they will be blocked/deleted in order to minimize the risk. This actually makes it difficult for a lot of content (the whole “let's play scene” would have to renegotiate this, private reporting of sporting events, fanzines, online flea markets, every form of remix culture, etc). It can happen that you are blocked from your own material ( see here ).

What you can fear

It's entirely possible that - if the content industry's wishes go ahead - massive changes are on the horizon in the way we can use the Internet.

At this point, you have to note that things that you have become fond of can no longer be practicable: A lot of content is under copyright, which can actually be enforced because at the same time it becomes easier to take action against copyright violations (namely against, for example, YouTube, Google or Facebook directly). Whether you are a blogger, influencer or hobby YouTuber, it is better to use Creative Commons licenses for the material you use.

And now?

The problem is that the very dynamic Internet we know has built up its own culture, which in many cases clashes with classic copyright ideas. Third-party content (songs, images or texts) is used in videos (and) on social media without the authors being able to assert their claims. The platform operators haven't been able to care about this so far, but they will have a responsibility in the future.


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )