Article 13: What is Article 13? Are memes BANNED? What has the EU banned?
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT has backed a controversial copyright law this week which could change the way we use the net. So what is Article 13?
Article 13: MEPs vote in favour of copyright reform
Under the new rules, technology companies will be responsible for material posted without the proper copyright permissions. The Copyright Directive was backed by 348 MEPs, with 278 against. Those in favour of the new law say it will compensate artists and musicians fairly.
But critics say it will destroy user-generated content, and alter the nature of the net.
Each EU member state must now approve the decision to implement the law, and if they do they have two years to do so.
The two clauses causing the most controversy are known as Article 11 and Article 13.
Article 11 states that search engines and news aggregate platforms should pay to use links from news websites.
What is Article 13?
Article 13 covers how "online content sharing services" should deal with copyright-protected content, such as television programmes and movies.
The rule applies to services that primarily exist to give the public access to "protected works or other protected subject-matter uploaded by its users”.
This means it’s likely to cover services such as YouTube, Dailymotion and Soundcloud.
It means they would need to apply filters to content before it is uploaded.
Article 13 says content-sharing services must license copyright-protected material from the rights holders.
If that is not possible and material is posted on the service, the company may be held liable.
These rules apply to services that have been available in the EU for more than three years, or have an annual turnover of more than €10m (£8.8m, $11.2m).
Will memes be banned?
The European Parliament said that memes - short video clips that go viral - would be "specifically excluded" from the Directive.
Article 13 says it shall "in no way affect legitimate uses" and people will be allowed to use bits of copyright-protected material for the purpose of criticism, review, parody and pastiche.
However, it remains unclear how tech firms would be able to enforce that rule with a blanket filter.