Ahead of EU’s vote on new copyright rules, EFF releases 5 key principles to guide copyright policy
The Electronic frontier foundation is taking part in copyright week. Their motto, “Copyright should encourage more speech, not act as a legal cudgel to silence it.”
According to EFF, copyright law often belongs in a majority to the media and entertainment industries, with little to no effect on other domains. Following this, EFF has teamed with other organizations to participate in Copyright Week.
They talk about five copyright issues which can help build a set of principles for the copyright law. Participating organizations for this year include Association of research libraries, Authors Alliance, Copyright for creativity, Disco, Ifixit, Rstreet, Techdirt, and Wikimedia.
For the year 2019, they have highlighted five issues and the whole week they will be releasing blog posts and actions on these issues on their blog and on Twitter.
EFF’s copyright issues for this year:
Copyright as a Tool of Censorship
Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right essential to a functioning democracy. Copyright should encourage more speech, not act as a legal cudgel to silence it.
Device and Digital Ownership
As the things we buy increasingly exist either in digital form or as devices with software, we also find ourselves subject to onerous licensing agreements and technological restrictions. If you buy something, you should be able to truly own it–meaning you can learn how it works, repair it, remove unwanted features, or tinker with it to make it work in a new way.
Public Domain and Creativity
Copyright policy should encourage creativity, not hamper it. Excessive copyright terms inhibit our ability to comment, criticize, and rework our common culture.
Safe Harbors
Safe harbor protections allow online intermediaries to foster public discourse and creativity. Safe harbor status should be easy for intermediaries of all sizes to attain and maintain.
Filters
Whether as a result of corporate pressure or regulation, over-reliance on automated filters to patrol copyright infringement presents a danger to free expression on the Internet.
This month EU is all set to vote on new copyright rules. These new copyright laws have received major opposition from Europeans. Per EFF, the Articles 11 and 13, also known as the “censorship machines” rule and the “link tax” rule, have the power to crush small European tech startups and expose half a billion Europeans to mass, unaccountable algorithmic censorship.
Per the Article 13 of the law, online platforms would be required to use algorithmic filters to unilaterally determine whether content anyone uploads, from social media posts to videos, infringes copyright, and would penalize companies that allow a user to infringe copyright, but not companies that overblock and censor their users. The outcome will be censorship of massive proportions.
The Directive is now in the hands of the European member-states. EFF urges people from Sweden, Germany, Luxembourg, and Poland to contact their ministers to convey their concern about Article 13 and 11.
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*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Security News – Packt Hub authored by Sugandha Lahoti. Read the original post at: https://hub.packtpub.com/ahead-of-eus-vote-on-new-copyright-rules-eff-releases-5-key-principles-to-guide-copyright-policy/
