femmescripter:

salt-of-the-ao3:

eatingcroutons:

I mean you’ve probably got that impression already but honestly, they are really, really bad. Especially if you like uploading fanfiction to websites like AO3.

At the moment, the way the law is phrased is likely to mean everything you upload in Europe, to any website that allows user-created content, will need to be automatically scanned for copyright violations.

You know YouTube’s automatic content filter? Imagine having that for the entire internet. We already know that copyright trolls exploit YouTube’s system in a bunch of ways, making money off user content they have no actual rights to, and shutting down legitimate user content.

But here’s where it gets worse: Websites that host user-generated content – including fanfiction – will be responsible for putting those filters in place and maintaining them themselves.

This law would in all likelihood require AO3 to implement a system which monitors every single work uploaded in Europe for copyright violations, before they can be shared on the Archive.

We’re talking full-on “robotic censorship regime”, as the Electronic Frontier Federation puts it. 

Not only would that be that icky and invasive. Not only would it ignore the complexity of copyright exceptions like Fair Dealing. Not only would it be easy to exploit by copyright trolls. It would also be a massive, massive burden on an organisation staffed entirely by volunteers. The sheer volume of work AO3’s coders, wranglers, and policy and abuse staff take on – for free, in their own time – is already staggering.

And while AO3 is a pretty robust archive, and might miraculously be able to find the resources to comply with this ridiculous law, there are many, many smaller websites out there that would seriously struggle. Other non-profits, libraries, and archives, who would all have to either build automatic content filters from the ground up – or more likely, pay for off-the-shelf “solutions” that are overpriced and ineffective.

The OTW are doing their best to fight this change, and this EFF post also has links to a bunch of ways in which you personally can help lobby against this terrible law.

The European Parliament’s legal committee has just voted (in June 2018) to press forward with the law, but we’ve probably still got until at least early 2019 before the whole Parliament votes on it. The timing is about as good as it gets – the next European Parliament election is expected in May 2019, so our MEPs are going to be worrying about re-election right when we need to put pressure on them (that’s now!).

Europe has managed to reject bad legislation in the past. We can do it again this time. Please do what you can to spread the word or get involved!

European followers: please, please sign the petitions, call/write to your MEPs, everythings that’s necessary. Your voice matters.

Just because I don’t live in Europe, doesn’t mean this isn’t important. You guys have to know. Please reblog this European followers!

@lucy-dont-give-a-fuck @eropantsu @azuranuray @deviantartsbiglover

lctor:

As of July 4th 2018, the Internet as we know it might be dead for good. 

The European Parliament is passing a new Copyright Directive. 
Article 13 #CensorshipMachine will impose widespread censorship of all the content we share online. Art, fanfiction, parodies, remixes, mashups, memes, etc.. Anything that you do not hold the rights over will be taken down. 

Article 13 would force all online platforms to police and prevent the uploading of copyrighted content, or make people seek the correct licenses to post that content. Internet platforms hosting large amounts of user-uploaded content must monitor user behaviour and filter their contributions to identify and prevent copyright infringement. 

Such filters will be mandatory for platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit and Instagram, but also much smaller websites. 

(x)

This doesn’t just affect Europe. The content creators you love are going to be in hot water for sharing their art and writing with you online. Any and all content that doesn’t belong to us will be filtered. Even memes are at risk, as the person who took the original photo may want to file complaints against any platform that allows it to be used without permission. But it goes even further than that.

Last Tuesday (19th June 2018) a group of more than 70 people who have played important roles in building the internet and developing it (Tim Berners-Lee, Vincent Cerf,

Jimmy Wales, Mitchell Baker…) into what it is today addressed an open letter to the members of the European Parliament:

“As creators ourselves, we share the concern that there should be a fair distribution of revenues from the online use of copyright works, that benefits creators, publishers, and platforms alike.

But Article 13 is not the right way to achieve this. By requiring Internet platforms to perform automatic filtering all of the content that their users upload, Article 13 takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the Internet from an open platform for sharing and innovation, into a tool for the automated surveillance and control of its users. […] The damage that this may do to the free and open Internet as we know it is hard to predict, but in our opinions could be substantial.”

Here is the original Article 13. It’s even scarier. / Link 2 

Here is how to contact your MEPs. 

Here is a full list of everything that will be affected.

Europe is facing a huge problem, and unlike with Net Neutrality, the world doesn’t seem to care.