undelivered letters

So first of all, now that it has been approved I’m seeing a lot of confusion about what the proposal actually does. You can read all of it here, but here’s a short summary of the proposal:

- The proposal was first published around two years ago. The two most problematic things about it are Article 11 and Article 13, Article 11 wanting to prevent people from using snippets of text from news articles, possibly also affecting links that contain the headline of the article; Article 13 is about using upload filters on websites with lots of user uploads to prevent copyrighted material from being posted online. This would not only affect screenshots and gifs, but also memes, music used in remixes and similar content. That’s right, if this law passes we won’t be able to post memes and similar content online anymore. (Note: Don’t worry about your fanart and fanfiction. Those won’t be taken down.) It’s not clear what kinds of websites will have to make use of those filters yet; while some sources state it will only affect big platforms like Youtube, Facebook, Flickr etc. others say it could also affect start-ups and forums who aren’t able to pay for those filters and might have to close down. (Please note that I’m no expert, so if you have anything to add/correct about my summary, feel free to do so.) - Today, on June 20th, a parliamentary committee approved of the proposal. However, it’s not over yet. The Internet won’t suddenly “die” today.  There are a few more steps to be made before this passes as an actual law. Presumably on 3rd-5th July, there’ll be a Parliament Negotiating Mandate Vote. Finally, there’ll be a final Parliamentary Vote in December. The proposal has to pass both of those votes before becoming an actual law.

Long story short: Keep contacting your MEPs. Just because the proposal has been approved, you shouldn’t stop fighting against this shit being passed. It’s not over yet. Here are some useful links: https://saveyourinternet.eu - Call and tweet your MEPs or write them (pre-written) emails https://act.openmedia.org/savethelink-call - Call your MEPs https://www.change.org/p/european-parliament-stop-the-censorship-machinery-save-the-internet  - Sign this petition against upload filters Lastly: No, this is not alt-right propaganda. I know many of you were confused when this issue first blew up, as there were barely any reliable sources and most articles about it seemed to come from alt-right websites who used the issue to bash the EU. I fell for the rumor about the issue being faked too and was surprised to read in my local newspaper a few days ago that it is an actual issue, and now I just regret to not have done anything before the proposal passed. But as I said: It’s not over yet. We can still fight against this.

 “ OTW Legal and our allies have been active in fighting on fan-unfriendly legal proposals in the EU. Since these proposals were introduced in 2016, OTW Legal has submitted comments opposing them and has joined in calls for action against them. We’ve managed to hold them off so far and encourage some revisions, but a key vote will be happening in the European Parliament’s JURI committee on 20/21 June that could have a significant impact on the Internet and fan sites. In particular, two provisions of the current proposal would be bad for fans. Article 11 would impose a “link tax” that would make it more expensive for many websites to operate, and Article 13 would impose mandatory content-filtering requirements on websites that host user-generated content. These provisions have been hotly debated and revised a bit since the last time we reported on them. (For more on recent revisions and debates, see these discussions by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Hogan Lovells Firm) But despite revisions, they’re still bad deals for fans. Importantly, they don’t preserve the “safe harbors” that websites rely on to operate, and they don’t include user-generated content exceptions.

Without safeguards for user-generated content, Article 13 would require your favourite websites to implement systems that monitor user-generated content and automatically remove any content that could potentially infringe upon copyright, giving publishing giants the power to block your online expression. Sites like YouTube, Tumblr, GitHub, Soundcloud, etc., could be required to block the upload of content based on whether it has been “identified” by big corporations, rather than based on its legality. The law is still being debated, and it is difficult to predict how it would impact the OTW’s projects, including the Archive of Our Own, if it is passed. Regardless of how this vote comes out, the OTW will work as hard as we can to keep the Internet fan-friendly. But we need your help. The most effective thing you can do right now is contact your Member of European Parliament. You can use one of these tools to e-mail your MEP or call your MEP to tell them that having user-generated content on the internet is important to you.

Here’s what you can tell them: Without safe harbors for user-generated content, Article 13 of the Copyright Directive would stifle free expression on the Internet. We don’t want mandatory filtering. Algorithms don’t understand limitations and exceptions to copyright like parody, public interest exceptions, fair use, or fair dealing, and we don’t want our non-infringing videos, website posts and art blocked because of a biased algorithm created by big corporations. We want the law to protect user-generated works, not harm them.

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH

I gave in

My hand slipped.