Slashdot Mirror
Europe's Controversial 'Link Tax' in Doubt After Member States Rebel (theverge.com)
Copyright activists just scored a major victory in the ongoing fight over the European Union's new copyright rules. An upcoming summit to advance the EU's copyright directive has been canceled, as member states objected to the incoming rules as too restrictive to online creators. From a report: The EU's forthcoming copyright rules had drawn attention from activists for two measures, designated as Article 11 and Article 13, that would give publishers rights over snippets of news content shared online (the so-called "link tax") and increase platform liability for user content. [...] After today, the directive's future is much less certain. Member states were gathered to approve a new version of the directive drafted by Romania -- but eleven countries reportedly opposed the text, many of them citing familiar concerns over the two controversial articles. Crucially, Italy's new populist government takes a far more skeptical view of the strict copyright proposals. Member states have until the end of February to approve a new version of the text, although it's unclear what compromise might be reached. Further reading: EU Cancels 'Final' Negotiations On EU Copyright Directive As It Becomes Clear There Isn't Enough Support.
Super-douchy, insanely stupid law is pissing people off. News at 11.
Not if the brotherhood of Nod has anything to say on the matter.
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
I'm sure that helps B no end, cutting views too. How stupid do they think we are? Don't answer that, it's obvious and rhetorical.
Government finding ever new ways to steal from all while saying it's for our best interest. Riiiiiiight.
The link tax was not a literal tax. It was directly from aggregator A to news publisher B, by government mandate, but the government does not collect or remit any money in the process. It would have just enforced the payments.
Thankfully the stupid ideas, which the directive was jammed full of, will all be going away for a while. Until the next time when the prop-up-my-obsolete-business-model brigade returns to try again. I might have some shred of sympathy if they weren't also bedfellows with the greedy-fuck-gimme-more-money-for-nothing brigade.