Europe's Controversial 'Link Tax' in Doubt After Member States Rebel

Copyright activists just scored a major victory in the ongoing fight over the European Union's new copyright rules. An upcoming summit to advance the EU's copyright directive has been canceled, as member states objected to the incoming rules as too restrictive to online creators. From a report: The EU's forthcoming copyright rules had drawn attention from activists for two measures, designated as Article 11 and Article 13, that would give publishers rights over snippets of news content shared online (the so-called "link tax") and increase platform liability for user content. [...] After today, the directive's future is much less certain. Member states were gathered to approve a new version of the directive drafted by Romania -- but eleven countries reportedly opposed the text, many of them citing familiar concerns over the two controversial articles. Crucially, Italy's new populist government takes a far more skeptical view of the strict copyright proposals. Member states have until the end of February to approve a new version of the text, although it's unclear what compromise might be reached. Further reading: EU Cancels 'Final' Negotiations On EU Copyright Directive As It Becomes Clear There Isn't Enough Support.

This just in

[nwaack]

Super-douchy, insanely stupid law is pissing people off. News at 11.

Yes. In the history books written by members of

[presidenteloco]

the new "Global Democratic Union".

Re:

[WolfgangVL]

Not if the brotherhood of Nod has anything to say on the matter.

Re:

[caladine]

Obligatory: Kane lives in death!

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

Super-douchy, insanely stupid law is pissing people off. News at 11.

Or more like insanely stupid proposed law not passed because it pissed people off.

i am waiting

[FudRucker]

waiting for the European Union to collapse under the weight of its own bureaucratic stupidity

Re:

[sexconker]

You won't have to wait much longer. (Oh, who am I kidding? The UK will cuck itself and find a way to stay in the EU.)

So "cuck itself" now means

[presidenteloco]

"do something rational for a change"?

Re:

[haruchai]

The UK will cuck itself and find a way to stay in the EU.

A bunch of UK cucks who've quietly faded into the background helped their nation cuck itself by Brexiting.

Re:

[thegarbz]

When has a government collapsed under the weight of bureaucracy? Normally it's the governments that eliminate bureaucracy altogether that quickly collapse.

Re:

[Rockoon]

The Roman Empire.

Now stop pretending that you know stuff.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Errr no. The Roman Empire fell due to idiots running the place, poor military decisions, and ultimately was overthrown rather than collapsing in on itself. The Roman empire was a lot of things but it was far from bureaucratic by any modern standards.

Now let me quote something I read on the internet to you:

Now stop pretending that you know stuff.

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

waiting for the European Union to collapse under the weight of its own bureaucratic stupidity

Wow the stupid is strong in this one.

This happens in literally every functioning democracy in the world.

1. Someone/party/group proposes incredibly asshatty law.
2. People in a position to vote on it say no.
3. Incredibly asshatty proposal fails and the law is not created.

But for some reason the thing you took away from that was (and I paraphrase) "dur teh EU *drool*". Seriously this happens in all levels of governmen

To think

[Bruce Perens]

To think that there could be political and public welfare complications from a company owning the news.

Re:

[Areyoukiddingme]

I'm sure that helps B no end, cutting views too. How stupid do they think we are? Don't answer that, it's obvious and rhetorical.
Government finding ever new ways to steal from all while saying it's for our best interest. Riiiiiiight.

The link tax was not a literal tax. It was directly from aggregator A to news publisher B, by government mandate, but the government does not collect or remit any money in the process. It would have just enforced the payments.

Thankfully the stupid ideas, which the directive was jammed full of, will all be going away for a while. Until the next time when the prop-up-my-obsolete-business-model brigade returns to try again. I might have some shred of sympathy if they weren't also bedfellows with the greedy

Re:

[AHuxley]

Follow the money. What are the EU nations doing with all the extra tax money?
Who are the nations in the EU having to spend so much new tax money on?

Re:

[F.Ultra]

Except of course that "tax" was just how it was reported. In reality it was a fee that the copyright holders would collect so no money would go to the EU or any of it's member countries.

Re:

[F.Ultra]

There are no enforcement costs. This is just like the tape tax that also is nothing like a tax in where the collection of the fees will be handled by a non governmental company that is created and funded by the copyright industry. This whole stupidity comes 100% from the politicians believing the copyright lobby groups when they cry that the bad evil internet is eating all their profits and have zero to do with EU wanting money.

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

What are the EU nations doing with all the extra tax money?

what extra tax money. Oh wait there isn't any because the law didn't get passed.

Please, don't let reality hit you in the ass on the way out.

...drafted by Romania

[Opportunist]

Translation: Romania was simply the cheapest country to bribe.