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MEPs vote in controversial laws that places copyright responsibility on Google and YouTube

Intense lobbying was done by tech giants like Google, which profits hugely from the advertising generated alongside the content it hosts.

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT today approved a controversial EU copyright overhaul that hands more power to news publishers and record companies against internet giants like Google and Facebook.

Despite an intense debate in parliament and furious lobbying ahead of the vote, MEPs meeting in Strasbourg ended up passing the draft law with 348 votes in favour, 274 against, and 36 abstentions.

Under the reform, European law for the first time would hold platforms legally responsible for enforcing copyright, requiring them to check everything that their users post to prevent infringement.

European lawmakers were sharply divided on the copyright issue, with both sides subjected to some of the most intense lobbying the EU has ever seen from tech giants, media firms, content creators and online freedom activists.

The culmination of a process that began in 2016, the revamp to European copyright legislation was seen as urgently needed, not having been updated since 2001, before the birth of YouTube or Facebook.

The reform was loudly backed by media companies and artists, who want to secure revenue from web platforms that allow users to distribute their content.

But it was strongly opposed by internet freedom activists and by Silicon Valley, especially Google, which makes huge profits from the advertising generated alongside the content it hosts.

After the vote, a Google spokesperson warned that the reform “will still lead to legal uncertainty and will hurt Europe’s creative and digital economies.”

The Irish Music Rights Organisation‘s CEO said that this was a “historic day for Irish music and the broader European cultural sector”.

Protests and media stunts

The final days before the vote were marked by marches and media stunts, including tens of thousands of people protesting in Germany on Saturday under the slogan “Save the Internet”.

Demo against copyright reform in Nuremberg A group of people is demonstrating in Nurnberg against the copyright law passed by the EU Parliament. DPA / PA Images DPA / PA Images / PA Images

There were similar protests in Austria, Poland and Portugal, while major Polish newspapers on Monday printed blank front pages in an appeal that MEPs adopt the reform.

“I know there are lots of fears about what users can do or not – now we have clear guarantees for freedom of speech, teaching and online creativity,” Commission vice president Andrus Ansip said after the vote.

Germany was at the heart of the anti-reform movement, led by Julia Reda, a 32-year-old Pirate Party MEP who spearheaded a campaign against two of the law’s provisions that have become flashpoints in the debate.

Reda said the vote marked a “dark day for internet freedom” and decried that MEPs refused, albeit narrowly, to modify the text before the final vote.

For Reda and her supporters the main worry was Article 13, which aims to strengthen the bargaining power of rights holders with platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Soundcloud, which use their content.

‘Details matter’

Reda and her supporters warned that Article 13 would require platforms to install expensive content filters that would automatically and often erroneously delete content from the web.

Speaking after the vote, Reda told AFP that she still hoped the German government would bow to public pressure and demand changes to the law before it is formally adopted.

Demo against copyright reform in Hamburg A participant in a demonstration against EU copyright reform. DPA / PA Images DPA / PA Images / PA Images

After that, seen by most observers as a formality, member states will have two years to transpose the EU directive into their own legislation.

“I think what the ultimate result will be that the internet will become more like cable television,” Reda told AFP.

“That generally there is going to be less diversity of online platforms because the risk of running a platform legally will become much higher.”

Backers of the law, led by MEP Axel Voss, answered that filters are not a requirement but they do not explain how companies can comply with Article 13 without them.

The second article advocated the creation of a “neighbouring right” to copyright for news media.

This is designed to enable news companies to demand payment when their output is used by information aggregators like Google News or social networks such as Facebook.

Major publishers including AFP have pushed hard for the reform, seeing it as an urgent remedy to safeguard quality journalism and the plummeting earnings of traditional media companies.

The reform, if properly implemented by member states “can help to maintain journalism in the field, which all evidence shows is still the best way to combat misinformation,” said AFP CEO Fabrice Fries.

But opponents have called it a “link tax” that will stifle discourse on the internet and pay only big media companies, with no real benefits for journalists or news gatherers.

The reform is staunchly backed by France and several other member states, but some countries may decide to use the flexibility built into the reform that allows a loose interpretation of the rules.

© – AFP, 2019 

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    Mute Jazz O'Gorman
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:08 PM

    Nazi anything is vermin, his body deserves to be dumped on the side of the road.

    114
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    Mute Ben Reilly
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:16 PM

    Couldn’t agree Jazz, put the body an industrial blender and pour it down the toilet … Good riddance

    52
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    Mute James P. Sullivan
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:52 PM

    I was going to suggest using it as cat litter for humans but you beat me to it.

    18
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    Mute Bluechip78
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:02 PM

    I wouldn’t say he was the nicest of fellows, especially with his final words denying the holocaust but it’s a disgrace the man can’t be buried by his family without being attacked.

    85
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    Mute Martin
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:12 PM

    Shame the Jews didn’t get to live to see that b@stard die

    112
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    Mute Jeff Kennedy
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:52 PM

    I think his point is ,was his body nicked to prevent a political statement ? Italy yet again has a National Socialist problem ,but nicking bodies is not the way to tackle it.

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    Mute Paul Mc
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:39 PM

    Maybe the Israelis kidnapped the body are are going to give it a fair trial and then hang it.

    44
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    Mute Brian Gallen
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    Oct 18th 2013, 6:05 AM

    Yess Posthumous execution like that of Oliver Cromwell dug up burnt hung and his body dumped in a ditch his head on public display in London for 25 years
    that’s what you get for ethnically cleansing Drogheda Wexford Waterford and Duncannon and that’s what you should get for taking part of “the final solution” …

    23
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    Mute Jason Naughton
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    Oct 18th 2013, 8:45 AM

    He got that for killing King Charles 1 not for cleansing Irish towns. They wouldn’t have done to him when he was alive. They only had that courage after his death.

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    Mute guardian
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    Oct 18th 2013, 12:33 PM

    Relax the kacks the man is dead we should be celebrating. Who cares who has a rotting body. The fact of the matter is he is dead.

    Im not at all religious so I dont believe he was punished but take comfort if you are religious that in your world he might go to hell or something

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    Mute Brian Gallen
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    Oct 19th 2013, 8:01 AM

    Cromwell was afraid he would come back from exile with an Irish army ex pat English from Ireland etc that’s why he was he’ll bent on reducing the Irish population by over half a million, in these days that’s a lot of people and a good reason to burn hang etc a dead man
    by the way if it could have been done while he was alive it would have, do you think everyone was sitting on there hands enjoying the slaughter like a good show

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    Mute Hippocrateeth
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:34 PM

    I can nazi how this is gonna end well.

    64
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    Mute Steve501
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:14 PM

    What was their excuse again….”we were just following orders.” And they were the ones who said they were sorry.

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    Mute Ping Pong
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:26 PM

    What?

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    Mute Steve501
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:18 PM

    Exactly….

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    Mute The Avarus Animus
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    Oct 18th 2013, 1:06 AM

    Why don’t you tell your boss in the morning Steve to go and sh*te!You are not following his orders any more. You’ll lose your job most likely.Then imagine your boss has the ability to make your life outside work, a living hell. He can through his influence easily ostracise you and your family from society and perhaps in some circumstances, even have you killed for disobeying his orders. Saving your life, your livelihood, your children’s reputation and future was not an excuse to follow orders, it was reason to survive. Also, quite simply, trained soldiers obey orders otherwise the whole military experiment does not work!

    We cant imagine decision making in such a horrific scenario as WW2. Nothing was normal with Nazi Germany. What he done was wrong.You know that.I know that. He even knew that but his priorities at that time were different and now we’ll never know what they were.

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    Mute SeanieRyan
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    Oct 18th 2013, 9:06 AM

    They didn’t bat an eyelid.

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    Mute Fergal McDonagh
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    Oct 18th 2013, 1:01 AM

    Did they check behind the couch?

    39
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    Mute Ru Ni Digs
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:46 PM

    Who would’ve thought the “Zombie Apocalypse” would begin in Rome,with “Nazi Zombies” of all things ???

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    Mute Niamh Byrne
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:31 PM

    It’s already happened. I had a dream about it then it was made into a movie ‘White Snow’.

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    Mute Ru Ni Digs
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:47 PM

    “White Snow” is that a movie about thawing out Walt Disney ??? I suppose that would make him a “Nazi Zombie” of sorts.

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    Mute Who's Yer Man
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:40 PM

    Way to bring FG and abortion into this story. B+ for effort. I would also have accepted reference to the bankers ruining the country to get the A.

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    Mute Thérèse
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:50 PM

    So where did my comment go?

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    Mute Jeff Kennedy
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:54 PM

    same place as that geeza’s body ,probably

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    Mute Thérèse
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:57 PM

    Seriously, all I said was that the Fine Gael TDs who voted to make legal the intentional killing of unborn children said the same thing “We were only following orders”. Weird that that is deleted or “gone missing”, when it’s actually true. All the so called Catholic TDs said they had to do it or they’d be thrown out of the party and lose their jobs! The triple lock whip was used to make them obey orders. Of course that is no excuse.

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:01 PM

    Thérese, your comment doesn’t really have anything to do with the story. This is not a story about abortion and bringing abortion into it just brings the comments completely off track.

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    Mute Damian O'Brien
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:03 PM

    It was terminated. And what the hell your comment concerning Fine Gael and the Protection of Life bill, when the article is about an unrepentant Nazi, your God only knows.

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    Mute Thérèse
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:12 PM

    Thanks Aoife for responding, but it is relevant. Your article says “Priebke also defended his actions at the Ardeatine Caves, saying the orders to shoot the civilians came from Adolf Hitler himself and that members of his SS unit were told they would be shot if they didn’t obey.”

    Anyone who coerces others to obey is in my opinion not fit for office – and in the case of abortion where we believe it is murder of innocent unborn babies, then it is atrocious. However, I’ll not mention it again in this article.
    :)

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:15 PM

    It’s a tenuous link. I appreciate you not mentioning it again.
    Thanks
    Aoife

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    Mute Bronagh B.
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:34 PM

    *hits mute*

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    Mute Leonora Hearty
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    Oct 18th 2013, 12:28 AM

    @bronagh was just thinking the same thing! Wish there was a mute button for the whole lot of them.

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    Mute Sheelagh Reid
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    Oct 18th 2013, 12:19 PM

    So that would include parents and teachers coercing children to obey orders?

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    Mute Gerry Jones
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    Oct 18th 2013, 6:43 AM

    A monster and Nazi apologist. Good riddance.

    10
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