The Dawn of a Major Clampdown of the Internet?

Towards a world with link taxes and copyright trolls

12 Sept 2018 could go down as the day that started the first major censorship of the Internet, and a forthcoming vote may seal its fate. For many companies who host user-created content, it could go down as the one where they started to apply filters on the material that users post.

Here is a quote from the EFF [link]:

Now that Article 13 has not a single friend in the world, save for a single, lonely German MEP, maybe it’s time we stopped holding the future of European copyright to ransom for the sake of a few recording companies who are willing to sacrifice the free expression of 500,000,000 Europeans to eke out a few more points of profit.

Most content which is be shared will not have to go through strict copyright filters, and risk automatic deletion. The rise of the copyright trolls and on the licencing of content is thus on the horizon. If you share anyone elses content, you could be receiving a solicitor’s letter in the post.

Overall the EU is trying to create a fair digital market-place — a common digital market — and where the abuses of major Cloud providers — such as Google scanning books without the permission of authors or publishers — can be addressed This will…