Terrorist Content Online: The Return of the Upload Filter

Public spaces online can be both a forum for the public debate necessary to underpin our liberal democracy, as well as a recruitment and propaganda paradise for terrorist organisations, where they can prey on and radicalise vulnerable members of our society. No regulation to delete the illegal content they publish will however eradicate […]

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Copyright negotiations hit a brick wall in Council

Today, Council firmly rejected the negotiating mandate that was supposed to set out Member States’ position ahead of what was supposed to be the final negotiation round with the European Parliament, Politico reports. National governments failed to agree on a common position on the two most controversial articles, Article 11, also known as the Link […]

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New copyright negotiation documents: more words, not more solutions

With every blog post or update I write, I try to illustrate why today is decisive in the negotiations for the copyright reform. The legislative process may seem neverending and repetitive – indeed, the same criticisms of articles 11 and 13 hold today, as they did a year ago – but fact is that we […]

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EU Council poised to insist on mandatory upload filters

The closed-door trilogue efforts to finalise the EU Copyright Directive continue. The Presidency of the Council, currently held by Austria, has now circulated among the EU member state governments a new proposal for a compromise between the differing drafts currently on the table for the controversial Articles 11 and 13.

Politico Europe has published the […]

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Lifting the veil on the secretive EU copyright negotiations that start today: Here’s where we stand

Today, the first “Trilogue” meeting is held on the EU copyright reform law infamous for its “link tax” and upload filter provisions.

In this series of closed-door meetings, the European Parliament and the Council (representing the member state governments) hammer out a final text acceptable to both institutions. It’s the last chance to make changes before the Directive gets […]

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European Parliament endorses upload filters and “link tax”

The European Parliament today finalised its position on copyright reform. It voted to make nothing but cosmetic changes to the controversial plans for upload filters and a “link tax”.

Today’s decision is a severe blow to the free and open internet. By endorsing new legal and technical limits on what we can post and share […]

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Showdown on upload filters and the link tax on September 12: These are the options in front of MEPs

Before the summer, the European Parliament decided to rethink its position on EU copyright reform plans, including upload filters and a “link tax”, after massive protests.

Refusing to address the problems of his proposals in meaningful ways, rapporteur Axel Voss (EPP) failed to build broad consensus around an alternative plan. Consequently, over 200 individual proposals […]

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EU copyright reform will spell disaster for sports fans

A lot has been written about the danger the planned EU copyright reform poses for freedom of speech online, for memes and remixes, for software developers and startups. Below, my colleague Dan Dalton and I draw attention to another group that would be badly affected by the planned law: Sports fans across Europe.

filtering fan […]

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People are taking to the streets on August 26th to #SaveYourInternet – join in!

A month ago, we made history: We stopped a law that would have massively restricted our freedom of expression in its tracks, dealing powerful lobbies an “unprecedented defeat”. Thank you for helping make that happen!

We’ve stopped the train – but the job is not finished: Now we must put it on the right track.

Decision […]

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What’s at stake in the July 5 #SaveYourInternet vote: The text, explained

On July 5 at noon, all 751 Members of the European Parliament will vote on whether to rubber-stamp the plans for upload filters and the “link tax”, or send them back to the drawing board. Please call them and ask them to do the latter!

What will they vote on exactly? Here’s the complete text […]

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