Article 13: EU countries approve copyright directive
The nations agreed to adopt the legislation after the European Parliament voted on it last month.
The EU has adopted Article 13, among other reforms.
European countries approved sweeping reforms to copyright law on Monday after the European Parliament voted to adopt the new legislation last month.
The EU Copyright Directive will protect and govern how copyrighted content posted online, bringing outdated rules up to scratch for the internet age. The law has been hotly debated both by politicians and the wider tech community, with some of the world's biggest companies taking a strong stance against the legislation -- in particular a section known as Article 13.
Article 13 dictates that anyone sharing copyrighted content must get permission from rights owners -- or at least have made the best possible effort to get permission -- before doing so. In order to do this, it's thought that internet services and social networks will have no choice but to build and enforce upload filters and generally apply a more heavy-handed approach to moderating what users post online.
For proponents of digital rights, the approval of the directive comes as a huge blow after over a year of campaigning to uphold what they see as the integrity of the internet. Following the European Parliament vote in March, there was hope that enough key countries might try to block the directive that it wouldn't pass, but ultimately it didn't face enough opposition on a national level (all EU legislation faces a final vote by member states before it can pass into law).
Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Finland and Sweden voted against adopting the directive, whereas Belgium, Estonia and Slovenia abstained. In total 19 countries voted to approve the legislation.
"This is a deeply disappointing result which will have a far-reaching and negative impact on freedom of speech and expression online," said Catherine Stihler, chief executive of rights group the Open Knowledge Foundation in a statement. "The controversial crackdown was not universally supported, and I applaud those national governments which took a stand and voted against it."
But not every was disappointed by Monday's result. A coalition of organizations representing news publishers in Europe celebrated the adoption of the directive. "This important reform will help make the EU copyright regime fit for the digital age without stifling digital innovation," said Christian Van Thillo, chairman of the European Publishers Council in a statement.