The EU copyright law is a good idea on paper, but a bad idea online
In 2009, I used to make videos for the Guido Fawkes political blog. Occasionally they were funny, more often they were downright weird, but they were at least an independent take on the news. Nearly all of them used short clips from political speeches, interviews and events – copyrighted material, though sampled legally.
I learnt ways of “ripping” clips off the internet. A Youtube user calling himself “Liar politicians” was an enormous help. He spent hours each day recording the news and posting neatly catalogued clips. Over time, he built up a huge archive, making it easier than ever to check what politicians had said. But one day, his entire account disappeared. Copyright holders of the content had complained and that was that.
Legally, the complainants were in the right, but the effect was to create a surprisingly large black hole where before reams of public discourse had been. Since you can’t find any of the older footage on the news websites themselves, it has simply disappeared. Under the new copyright directive just passed by the EU (supported by the UK), I’m not sure any of my silly videos or “Liar politicians” would even get online. The directive holds platforms liable for copyright infringements even if there is no complaint, forcing them to censor everything uploaded pre-emptively.
It’s easy to see how Brussels thought this was a good idea. The first copyright law in the world, passed in Britain in 1735, was there to protect artists. It was introduced after lobbying by William Hogarth, who was incensed that printmakers were copying prints of his work. But “Hogarth’s Law” was clear and simple. All an artist had to do was inscribe
I’m not sure my silly videos or ‘Liar Politicians’ would get online now
their name and date in the corner of the plate and it was protected for 14 years – unlike the minimum 70 granted today – without any need for complicated interventions. Whereas the EU directive takes an easy principle on paper and stamps it crudely onto the complex ecosystem of the internet. Enriching and legal content will get caught in the dragnet. The riotous public exchange of ideas in the digital sphere just got a bit more difficult.