The European Union Parliament has approved copyright law that could have significant repercussions for the internet in Europe.
As per Article 11, link tax demands the websites to pay publishers a fee if they display excerpts of copyrighted content. Article 13, dubbed the upload filter, and could effectively make digital platforms legally liable for copyright infringements on their platform.
Google closed its Google News in Europe after a law was introduced requiring Google to pay publishers for linking to their content. Now that a similar law is set to be rolled out across the European Union, services such as Google News could be affected in the region. There are now questions over YouTube’s position as a platform that allows anyone to upload content.
The elements of the law include proposals around text and data mining, which have implications for AI research — including copyright for TDM conducted for research purposes. However, rights holders having their works data mined by entities other than research organizations.
The law is expected to have immediate and far-reaching repercussions.
“The Copyright Directive will lead to legal uncertainty, and it will affect Europe’s creative and digital economies,” Google said.
