Europe's new copyright law could change the internet

New laws in Europe could have a significant impact on how Google and Facebook run their businesses. Photo/Getty Images.

The European Parliament on Tuesday approved a sweeping set of changes to copyright laws that could force big tech companies to be legally responsible for the content that users upload on their websites.

Once the rules go into effect, Internet platforms will have to be much more active in policing content posted by ordinary users. Advocates of the law say it is needed to rein in an anything-goes approach to intellectual property online. Critics say it will crimp expression on the Internet and could lead to censorship.

The new rules, approved in a 348 to 274 vote, would force Google News and other aggregators to pay publishers for certain types of links to their articles. Services that offer users the chance to upload their own content, such as YouTube and Facebook, could be liable for videos that violate copyrights. E.U. governments are expected to approve the rules next month, which would put them on course to go into effect in two years.

Advocates and critics agreed that the changes could create a fundamental shift in the way the Internet operates, and both sides lobbied heavily ahead of the decision. Musicians, news publishers and other content creators fought for the new law. Internet freedom advocates, along with big tech companies, scrambled to fend it off.

"Parliament has chosen to put an end to the existing digital Wild West by establishing modern rules that are in step with technological development," said European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, in a statement.

Although Tuesday's changes are a wide-ranging overhaul of European copyright law - the first in two decades - two aspects received the most attention. Article 11, dubbed the "Link Tax" or "Snippet Tax" by critics, would require aggregators to pay licensing fees when they include excerpts of content when they link to other articles.

Another element of the law, Article 13, makes Internet companies legally responsible for the content uploaded on their platforms. The companies say they will have to implement filters that inevitably will also snag legal content alongside copyright violations.

The law sparked protests among young people in Germany ahead of its passage. Wikipedia and other websites blacked out parts of their content in some E.U. countries to object to the possibility of changes.

A "dark day for Internet freedom," tweeted Julia Reda, a German member of European Parliament who helped organise opposition to the bill.

The decision drew a sharp rebuke from the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a trade group that represents tech giants including Amazon, Facebook and Google. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post.) Rules requiring sites to pay a "snippet tax" for excerpting news stories "risks restricting freedom of information online," CCIA said, while its new copyright rules "increases the incentives for platforms to over-filter and over-remove users' uploads."

"We fear it will harm online innovation and restrict online freedoms in Europe. We urge Member States to thoroughly assess and try to minimize the consequences of the text when implementing it," Maud Sacquet, senior policy manager for CCIA in Europe, said in a statement.

Google responded in its own statement: "The Copyright Directive is improved but will still lead to legal uncertainty and will hurt Europe's creative and digital economies. The details matter, and we look forward to working with policymakers, publishers, creators and rights holders as EU member states move to implement these new rules."

- Washington Post