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In a follow-up to our prior article, the EU vote on Article 11 and Article 13 have failed to pass the second round of voting.
The vote took place on July 5th, after passing the JURI committee’s vote on June 20th. The vote featured representatives of each EU nation.
Out of 627 possible votes, 278 approved the move, while 318 voted against it. 31 representatives abstained from voting.
Below we have a graph showing how each EU country’s representatives voted. Of note is Sweden with all of their representatives voting against the law, and France with just over 10% of their representatives voting against it.
If passed, Article 11 would have allowed EU countries to demand a tax to be paid on posting a hyperlink. Details were vague as to whether this would have applied for someone in the EU posting on a US based website. In addition, Article 13 would have demanded all websites that can be accessed by an EU country to include an upload filter- detecting copyright material.
Apart from devastating online communities who thrive on using transformative and parody work to create memes and fan-work, many algorithms that attempt similar on sites such as Youtube often miss many pieces of copyright material, and give “false-positives” to media that is wholly original.
Despite the success, many anti-censorship and pro-internet freedom groups are still asking to stay alert and spread awareness. Julia Reda, an EU MP who was wholly opposed to the law, posted this message to Twitter in a video:
“We did it! Together, we have shown today that important decisions about the future of the internet cannot be made behind closed doors. But: the fight is far from over. What we have achieved today is that the entire Parliament will still have a debate in September and will vote on changes to this copyright reform. So we must be vigilant. We cannot stop the public pressure now. The Parliament is on summer recess so we can take a little breather for a few weeks but it will be back at the end of August. So I’m calling upon all of you who have supported via Change.Org and SaveYourInternet campaigns to get together for an action day on August 26th, which is the Sunday before the Parliament is back in session. Together, all over Europe we can send a clear signal that the public is still watching, and that we will not accept a copyright reform that includes upload filters or the link tax. But now, let’s celebrate, and we’ll see each other soon!”
We will keep you updated as this and other stories that affect the internet continue.
