EU copyright bill targets tech giants

Overall implementation likely to take place by 2021 in all 28 member states

The European Parliament gave final approval of the new European Union Copyright Directive on Tuesday, with 348 members voting in favor and 274 against.

An overall implementation of the new copyright law is likely to take place by 2021 in all EU member states.

"Today's vote ensures the right balance between the interests of all players - users, creators, authors, press - while putting in place proportionate obligations on online platforms," said a joint statement by Andrus Ansip, the vice-president for the digital single market and Mariya Gabriel, the commissioner for digital economy and society.

The controversial reform aims to adapt the copyright law to the digital era, protecting the rights and obligations of the copyrights on the internet. It puts an end to three years of debate and a legislative process starting from 2016.

The law exerts direct influences on the creative industries in EU that contribute to 11.65 million jobs, 6.8 percent of the GDP and 91.5 billion euros ($103 billion) per year, according to the joint statement.

Tech giants Google, Facebook and YouTube are the first to bear the brunt. As a strong opponent of the legislation, Google said that the revamp will hurt the Europe's creative and the digital economies.

The new copyright directive means an enforcement of compensations on the publishers, creators, artists and musicians if their materials are used by these internet giants. In addition, these companies have to shoulder the responsibility of filtering, in case that the issues posted online are without proper copyright.

Both the compensation and the filtering requirement mean enormous funding for these companies.

Wikipedia, the noncommercial encyclopedia, has shown its discontent by shutting down its pages in Italy, Germany, Slovak and Denmark for 24 hours due to the possible restrictions on Wiki material copied by its contributors, as suggested in the law's Article 11 and Article 13.

"This is our last chance. Help us to modernize copyright in Europe," words are presented in a black background on the web page of German Wikipedia.

The legislative reform has sparked opposition and even popular demonstrations in several European countries. Thousands of people marched on the streets of Berlin against the overhaul with the slogan "Save the Internet" on Tuesday.

Similar protests took place in Austria, Poland and Portugal. Over 5 million people in Europe have signed a petition against the new law, according to the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament.

Ning Yuqi contributed to this story.

(China Daily 03/29/2019 page11)