Controversial law dismissed in the EU

But the battle is not over yet.

On 20 June, a committee in the European Parliament voted through a controversial bill, which critics have said could have serious consequences for the actual freedom of the Internet.

Today, the bill was voted again in the European Parliament, and this time it stopped. 318 of the MPs voted against the amendments, while 278 voted for.

Thus, the law is sent back to the drawing board before it will be voted again in September this year.

Two controversial points
The bill voted today has received massive criticism due to two points, in particular the "Article 13" section has received the most attention.

Article 13 contains an obligation to commit Internet services to introduce measures that prevent access to copyrighted material - including technology that "recognizes" content, that is, a kind of filter.

In practice, for example, it may act as an additional intermediary between the user and a website like YouTube or Facebook, where content is uploaded. The filter checks whether the content being uploaded is copyrighted material. If it is not, it will be uploaded. If the system recognizes the material from, for example, a movie or TV series that is copyrighted, the file will not be uploaded.

• By requiring Internet platforms to automate the filtering of all content uploaded by users, Article 13 seeks to transform the Internet from an open platform for sharing and innovation into an automated monitoring and control tool for its users. in a letter sent to the European Parliament, signed by, among others, the Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, the man who designed and developed the TCP / IP protocol, and the World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.

Article 11 has also been criticized and referred to as a "link tax", which will force platforms like Facebook and Google to pay news organizations before they link to their content.

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• One step back
  The Association of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music, which represents a number of European music companies, said the no vote was a step back but not the end.

In a statement, SACEM leader David El Sayegh says that they have support from, among others, former Beatles member Paul McCartney, who was in favor of the bill. They hope a rewritten version of the law will be able to reach a "fair" deal with the internet giants that can secure the future of the music industry.

The Rights Alliance supports "Article 13"
The Norwegian interest organization Rettighetsalliansen, representing Norwegian filmmakers, musicians and writers, hopes the bill will go through in the next version:

"It is a paradox that platforms for user-created content account for an increasing proportion of music and film distribution, while they account for only a small portion of the rightsholders' income," says Øystein Flagstad, partner of law firm Grette Law Firm, on behalf of the Alliance.

He says they support Article 13 and say it will increase platform owners, such as Facebook and YouTube, their responsibility for copyright infringement.

"But the law in the EU has not finally stopped, just returned to the European Parliament for further discussion, so we still have the expectation that such a rule will be introduced," concludes Flagstad.