European Parliament
Wired: Europe's New Copyright Law Could Change the Web Worldwide
The European Parliament passed sweeping copyright legislation Wednesday that, much like its privacy regulations, could have impact far beyond Europe.
Critics argue that the most controversial part of the proposal will effectively force all but the smallest website operators to adopt "upload filters" similar to those used by YouTube, and apply them to all types of content, to stop users from uploading copyrighted works. That could pose problems, given how expensive such filters could be to develop, and the high likelihood of false positives.
The legislation will also require site owners to pay for displaying snippets of content. Critics have called this a "link tax," though links and search engine listings are exempted from the requirement.
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Update: EU approves controversial Copyright Directive, including internet ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’ (The Verge)
WNU Editor: I have already cut down my use of European news websites. This proposal will now kill it. I will now use European news links if they are only hosted by third parties like Yahoo news. But if I do find a juicy news story from Europe, I will then discuss it, say that it is being reported by France 24 (for example), and then tell the reader to Google it.
The Golden Age of the web is coming to an end. What will replace it will be new laws and regulations that will control what content we can see on the web.
