EU lawmaker reject new copyright law
BRUSSELS: The European Parliament on Thursday rejected a highly controversial EU copyright law proposal that has pitted Beatles legend Paul Mccartney against internet giants and the creators of Wikipedia.
Lawmakers are now expected to return in September to the plans, which are aimed at ensuring creators of creative content — whether music, movies or news — are paid fairly in a digital world.
“Today’s vote represents a victory for democracy,” said Siada El Ramly, head of EDIMA, a lobby representing Google, Facebook and other US tech giants.
Members of European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg voted 318 against the measure, 278 in favour, with 31 abstentions.
The vote would have given MEPS the mandate to start negotiations with member states for a finalised law which Austria, holder of the EU’S six-month rotating presidency, would like finished by the end of the year.
The two most disputed aspects of the reform are an effort to boost revenue for hard-up news publishers and a crackdown on noncopyrighted material on tech platforms such as Google-owned Youtube or Facebook.
Major publishers, including AFP, have pushed for the news media reform — known as article 11 — seeing it as an urgently needed solution against a backdrop of free online news.
But opponents have called it a “link tax” that will stifle discourse on the Internet.
Resistance has been especially heated to Article 13, which is the proposal to make online platforms legally liable for copyrighted material put on the web by users.
Mccartney as well as major music labels and film studios had lobbied politicians urging them to back the changes.
But critics said the reform will lead to blanket censorship by tech platforms that have become an online hub for creativity, especially Youtube. It would also restrict the usage of memes and remixes by everyday internet surfers, they said. ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog has announced it will put any arrests of candidates in the general elections on hold till the election day on July 25, and cease ongoing anti-graft probes against all politicians.
The move by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) drew a mixed reaction, with many criticising it.
NAB also announced on Wednesday it was halting probes into cases against former foreign minister Khawaja Asif and other former provincial and state ministers from the PML-N party. All investigations, the bureau said, will resume after July 25.
The executive board of NAB decided to put these cases on hold because no breakthroughs were expected till July 25, a spokesperson said.