EU countries will have two years to implement Copyright Directive

EU countries will have two years to implement the newly adopted Copyright Directive. On Tuesday in Strasbourg, the European Parliament passed the Copyright Directive, closing the legislative process which started in 2016. Member states will have to approve this decision of the MEPs in the coming weeks. Earlier, however, despite the opposition of eight countries, including Poland and Italy, the majority of states opted for new regulations. During the two years, the Polish authorities will have to develop the relevant draft law, most likely a new law, MEP Kosma Złotowsk told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

There are numerous articles and points of reform therein, but it is Article 11 and 13 of the Directive which have sparked controversy. Article 11, informally dubbed as the "link tax", gives publishers the right to charge search engines, aggregators, and other sites if they reproduce more than “single words or very short extracts” of new stories. Article 13, also known as the "upload filter," for-profit platforms like YouTube, Tumblr, and Twitter will be forced to proactively scan user-uploaded content for material that infringes copyright.

(PAP)