European Union prepares to wreck internet with new copyright law

[Sanguine]

If passed, Article 13 will force all websites to check any and all posts for copyright violations. That will include photos, videos, words, tweets, memes, software code, etc, etc. Think about that for a minute, and shudder.

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Networking | June 21, 2018 -- 23:36 GMT (16:36 PDT) | Topic: Networking

ant about anything on any site that allows comments and post any content you like on sites that allow you to share music, code, words, video, and so on. That may be changing. The European Union (EU) Article 13 was just passed by the EU's Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee. If it makes it into law, freedom of speech on the net will be gagged.

In the United States, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 helps guarantee free speech on the internet with its "safe harbor" provision. This reads: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

That's vital because it gives online platforms legal protection from most of the content posted by their users. That means you can say anything you want -- from comments putting you in the running as the world's most obnoxious troll to word of wisdom -- and the site, whether it's ZDNet, Reddit, YouTube, what have you, can't be held responsible....

https://www.zdnet.com/article/european-union-prepares-to-wreck-internet-with-new-copyright-law/?ftag=TRE-03-10aaa6b&bhid=93223229