On the 15th of April, a vote was taken by 19 nations which are a part of the European Union (EU,) to approve new copyright rules, including the highly controversial Article 13.
Article 13 insists, the publishers should give content creators complete credit. Furthermore, the Article also forces tech and advertising companies to put more effort into policing the content shared on their platforms. Apart from this, the Article says, companies will be held liable if content is shared illegally or used without prior permission from the creators.
According to the new copyright rules issued by the EU, Google will have to pay for news snippets and Facebook will have to eliminate protected content. Launched by the European Commission two years ago, the EU finally approved the motion on Monday.
“When it comes to completing Europe’s digital single market, the copyright reform is the missing piece of the puzzle,” the Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker said, in a statement.
The new rules state, companies like Google and other platforms will have to sign licensing agreements with performers, musicians, authors, publishers and journalists before they publicly display their work.
Protesting against this new rule, Wikipedia blacked out several European sites last month. While countries like Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden opposed this new regime, 19 other countries including France and Germany agreed with the new rule.
Apart from Google’s new change, the Facebook owned Instagram now has to add new filters to prevent content from being stolen.
Associations like the European Magazine Media Association, the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association, the European Publishers Council, News Media Europe and Impala, an independent music labels group, welcomed this new change with open arms.
The EU member nations are now going to have two years to put this revamp into motion by making them a part of their national laws.
Stay tuned for more updates.
