While it may fall short of being an ‘Order 66,’ the European Parliament’s recent passing of vast changes to their copyright rules, specifically Articles 11 and 13 (recently renumbered to 15 and 17 respectively) have many critics and internet users across Europe worried. The directive, aptly named “Copyright in the Digital Single Market” is a part of their efforts to update laws in order to address challenges posed by the information age, but many are concerned that this could ultimately result in online censorship.
The biggest area of concern over these measures for most critics at this point is Article 17, aka 13. Instead of flagging copyright violations falling on the shoulders of the right holders themselves, the new rules shift that liability to the platforms and they must ensure that their platforms aren’t subject to copyright breaches.
The concerns being raised are worried that this will lead to controversial filtering systems where everything from memes to quoting articles and blog posts are automatically blocked from the platforms. Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital liberties group, described the Article as “a censorship machine that puts thousands of daily activities and millions of internet users at the mercy of algorithmic filters.”
The European Parliament has tried to assure the public that their fears are unwarranted at this point, releasing a statement that said content shared “for purposes of quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody, and pastiche,” will be excluded from Article 13, but when it comes to copyright and censorship, we all know it can be a slippery slope.
While advertisers and users of platforms like YouTube and Facebook could obviously face new rules and have to change the way that they utilize or provide those services, how could this affect crypto?
On the surface, there’s no apparent tangible impact at this point but that doesn’t mean that it’s not coming. Those in the crypto industry could face a rather tough logistical challenge: with public blockchain networks that are by nature censorship-resistant, how can they comply with the new law when blockchain is basically impervious to copyright law?
It will definitely be interesting to see what happens once copyright infringement claims start flying around the EU. Which blockchains will censor content that was uploaded onchain and which ones will refuse because they either can’t, or simply won’t based on principal?
Copyright infringement is a serious concern worldwide and while the decades-old law certainly needed updated to match the times, the vague wording could very well lead to a backlog as they work to determine which are legitimate, and which fall outside the parameters.
