Yesterday the EU institutions concluded ‘trialogue’ negotiations on the EU Copyright directive, a procedural step that makes the final adoption of the directive a near certainty.
Here’s a statement from Raegan MacDonald, Mozilla’s Head of EU Public Policy –
The Copyright agreement gives the green light to new rules that will compel online services to implement blanket upload filters, with an overly complex and limited SME carve out that will be unworkable in practice. At the same time, lawmakers have forced through a new ancillary copyright for press publishers, a regressive and disproven measure that will undermine access to knowledge and the sharing of information online.
The legal uncertainty that will be generated by these complex rules means that only the largest, most established platforms will be able to fully comply and thrive in such a restricted online environment.
With this development, the EU institutions have squandered the opportunity of a generation to bring European copyright law into the 21st century. At a time of such concern about web centralisation and the ability of small European companies to compete in the digital marketplace, these new rules will serve to entrench the incumbents.
We recognise the efforts of many Member States and MEPs who laboured to find workable solutions that would have rectified some of the gravest shortcomings in the proposal. Unfortunately the majority of their progressive compromises were rejected.
The file is expected to be adopted officially in a final European Parliament vote in the coming weeks. We’re continuously working with our allies in the Parliament and the broader community to explore any and every opportunity to limit the potential damage of this outcome.