European Parliament votes against start of negotiations on ‘upload filter’ proposal

The European Parliament voted in a plenary session on Thursday afternoon against starting negotiations on the basis of the current proposal for the Copyright Directive, which contains controversial provisions such as the ‘upload filter’ and the so-called ‘link tax’.

Voting Against Negotiation

MEP Julia Reda, a fierce opponent of the current proposal, reports that this means that the proposal will go ‘back to the drawing board’ and that the European Parliament will be able to vote on it again in September. This means that the current text can still be modified. Axel Voss, who is responsible for the proposal, defended the directive by pointing to the “internet capitalism” that would spread in Europe and that is operated by big companies like Google and Amazon. According to him, the proposal should change this.

The directive, which deals with copyright, contains two articles that cause a lot of controversy. In the first place, this is the ‘upload filter’, which is laid down in Article 13. This obliges online platforms to check copyright material that users upload in advance for infringements. Critics fear that this affects the open nature of the internet. The article has been criticized from various quarters, along with a group of 145 organizations by the European privacy regulator and several Member States.

In addition, there is Article 11, which is also referred to by critics as a ‘link tax’ or link tax. That article would create an additional right for publishers that would hinder the free exchange of information, fear 169 academics. Under the rules, the use of small pieces of news items, or snippets, would only be allowed with the permission of the copyright owner. Several Wikipedia pages showed only a single page to visitors this week, protesting the organization against the new draft regulations; visitors are called upon to take action.

The Juri Committee on Legal Affairs, which is part of the European Parliament, voted on June 20 in favor of the current form of the text of the proposed directive. If the European Parliament had voted in favor on Thursday, the directive would not have come into effect definitively; in that case, negotiations on the directive could have started with the Council.

Update, 15:01: Bits of Freedom has uploaded a document showing who voted how.

The road ahead for the proposal, by EDRi