Europe is trying to make the internet more fair. How that may backfire.
The motives behind Europe’s effort to reform its copyright law appear unambiguously altruistic.
The reformers argue that internet giants like Google or Facebook are taking money that should be going to smaller publishers like local media or artists. “Due to outdated copyright rules, online platforms and news aggregators are reaping all the rewards while artists, news publishers, and journalists see their work circulate freely, at best receiving very little remuneration for it,” the European Parliament’s legislative committee explained earlier this month.
No one involved in the debate objects to these goals. But critics question their cost should the European Copyright Directive move forward in its current form. They warn that the attempt to make the major platforms directly liable for copyright infringement by their users could cause them to limit their users’ ability to post their own content – and fundamentally change the way the internet works.
“The Copyright Directive will make the internet a place where anything anyone posts must first
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