Silicon Valley to gain new copyright 'safe harbour' in EU

[tangor]

The European Union looks poised to strengthen large internet platforms' position against online liabilities, according to a leak of the latest copyright directive draft dated 23 April. The most recent publicly available draft (PDF) is dated 13 April.

Critics say proposed amendments in European law would grant new "safe harbour" provisions that are favourable to the giant firms – meaning the tech goliaths can continue banking loads of cash and avoid punishment while their websites and services are used by netizens to rip off copyrighted work.

Ironically, the new legal privileges come out of a well-meaning effort to help the music industry fight YouTube by plugging what the business calls a "value gap".

[theregister.co.uk...]

Looks like another fail in progress for creators and small to medium industry.

[keyplyr]

Seems its still in the planning stage and nothing has been finalized. Doesn't make much sense to criticize since this is the process taken of negotiating the terms of the regulation.

[tangor]

The drafts which have been released already indicate the direction the regulation is taking, so concerns are reasonable, even at this early date.

[keyplyr]

Interesting the EU gives concessions to ISPs & tech goliaths for so-called fair use. Recently they've been pretty strict.

Ironically, the new legal privileges come out of a well-meaning effort to help the music industry fight YouTube by plugging what the business calls a "value gap".

This may likely get changed.