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The Link Tax & Upload Filter | Copyright Directive Articles 11 & 13 Passed

Welcome to another BoredGamer Video, I was going to record a Star Citizen State of the game and chat about CitizenCon BUT Article 11 & 13 have been voted on and passed through this stage of European Parliament (EP) & I wanted to talk about that & how that could affect content.

What Has Happened?
Slightly Updated versions of Article 11 & 13 Copyright Directive were approved by European Parliament on the 12th Sept 2018.

This was the so called link tax and upload filter respectively with the idea of bringing copyright laws in line with the digital age.

Article 11 is to give publishers & news outlets a fee when companies like google link to their content.

Article 13 is to prevent the sharing of unlicensed copyrighted materials on the net.

The worry is for both of these that they will be abused & that this will really hamper the internet, content creators and the freedom of information. In regard to A13 this will require sites like youtube, facebook and twitter to scan and remove any potentially copyrighted material.

Personally Experiencing videos being demonetized, some being taken down for copyright all incorrectly does not fill me full of hope. Admittedly this happens much more rarely now, but this AI that will taken down videos may very well be a major problem for people like me creating videos.

It’s Not The End
However it’s not the end of the world, this does need to get voted on again in January by the EU member states, but it’s likely it will pass imo.

People, Gaming and the internet are all dynamic, it will survive this tho it’s going to be disruptive.

When it comes to my content and video content for Gaming and Star Citizen getting permissions to use their content in writing or article will go a long way, CIG & Star Citizen have a Fandom section:

https://support.robertsspaceindustries.com/hc/en-us/articles/115013196127-Fandom-FAQ-Videos-writing-and-more

Detailing that they allow content creators to make videos and monetize them via Youtube or similar platforms. Great.

I hope to see similar sections from other games, companies and news-sites in the future.

If you are looking for what you can do, I suggest you use the internet to inform yourself, from multiple different sources, talk about it, be civil with others & contact your MEP.

I’ll leave a link to #SaveYourInternet this details how to get in contact with your appropriate MEP if you live in the EU.
There is a worry that this could damage smaller content creators, price them out of linking news & using sources… My worry is we could have a generation of News-Tubers that think it’s appropriate to not link or use sources.

And that this could cause major issues with video content that I consume and make.

If Youtube constantly picked up the Star Citizen Music as copyright or my Intro/Outro Music which is from Level 1 of Hyper Vanguard Force a mini-game that was on the Star Citizen Website even with permission to use them, that would be damaging.

Whatever the final outcome the internet will survive but maybe not in the way we know it today, HOWEVER I will be using my voice now to contact my MEP again to avoid regretting not doing more.
There will be more discussion about how they will form these laws and how they will be implemented before the vote in January 2019, but now is the time to spread more awareness and inform yourself.