#linktax

I recently read an interesting article arguing that essentially, yes, fake news are a problem, but real news are a problem, too, and one at least as large: most news are sensational and focus only on negative and unusual things because that gets people's attention, leading to everyone being in a constant state of existential panic. So with that in mind:

Here's some good news!

The Council of the European Union has failed to agree on a position on Articles 11 and 13 of the proposed copyright directive (the ones including link tax & upload filters). As Julia Reda (MEP, Pirate Party) writes in the blog post I linked above:

A total of 11 countries voted against the compromise text proposed by the Romanian Council presidency earlier this week: Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Slovenia, who already opposed a previous version of the directive, as well as Italy, Poland, Sweden, Croatia, Luxembourg and Portugal. […] some rightsholder groups who are supposed to benefit from the Directive are also turning their backs on Article 13.

(further sources: politico, unfortunately behind a paywall, heise.de and golem.de (both in German; sorry for not including other languages, but there is a limit to how many news feeds I can read))

Now, this does not mean the directive is dead (unfortunately). But it does mean that, contrary to what was expected, there will almost certainly be no agreement before the elections in May (so go out and vote! Turnout was below half last time, let's dial that up!). And more importantly, it means the protest worked. Despite all atempts to discredit all protests as right-wing hysterics (and despite all the real right-wing hysterics that also happened), the campaigns did do something. The people making these decisions are starting to have doubts, and they're starting to feel queasy about it. I cannot stress this enough: this piece of legislation was expected to pass quickly, without much high-level protest, and yet it's becoming increasingly unpopular both within the (mostly) conservative circles that propelled it so far and even among some rightsholders who are supposed to benefit from it.

So to anyone who called MEPs, to everyone who spread awerness: let's lean back for a moment and feel good about ourselves. I think we've earned it.

(oh, and obviously, once they do agree on something: if that something is still upload filter & link tax bullshit, let's go back to protesting)

Link Tax!!!! Are you kidding me? 

Did you know that we've created an official guide to the #linktax so that elected MEPs examining and amending the law know the issue inside out?

The EU Commission has officially released some of the worst copyright laws in the world, including unprecedented new Link Tax powers for publishing giants.

This will affect Internet users around the world.

The link tax could make some of your favorite content virtually disappear from search engines.