For months, the European Parliament has been negotiating over a new
copyright rule, with rightsholder organizations demanding that some
online services implement censoring filters that prevent anyone from
uploading text, sounds or images if they have been claimed by a
copyright holder.
These filters – branded #censorshipmachines by activists – were hugely
controversial: even when used as intended, they make no allowances for
fair dealing and other limitations to copyright. Beyond that, they are
ripe for abuse, incentivizing trolls and censors to register materials
as a means of keeping them off the internet, regardless of whether they
hold any relevant copyrights.
Thankfully, the filters had been largely erased from the negotiating
drafts, thanks to vigorous debate and activism. But last week, German
MEP Axel Voss, rapporteur for the Copyright Directive, introduced a new draft
that brought the filters back, and imposed them on virtually every kind
of online platform, vastly expanding their scope beyond the worst
drafts of the earlier proposals.
What’s worse, Voss apparently didn’t author this draft: according to the
Word metadata in the document, it was authored by an unelected European
Commission bureaucrat who has previously advocated for the filters.
