Yesterday, the European Parliament voted on the reform of its copyright laws in all EU countries, as well as a number of amendments tabled for debate.
The original plan for the reform of the copyright law was written by Julia Reda, a member of the European Parliament for the German Pirates Party, but later amended in June following a series of consultations with various EU political parties.
During these negotiations, five changes were introduced to Ms Reda's original plan. In the vote in the European Parliament yesterday, three of these amendments were not accepted.
One of the unapproved amendments refers to an amendment to the text of the law on the abolition of the European Commission's guidelines on copyright limitations and exceptions.
Those who were defeated were the most dangerous for the freedoms of EU citizens, including Freedom of Panorama, which was trying to pass restrictions on taking photographs in public places.
The second amendment referred to the right of artists and professionals to make their content available online free of charge, which EU lawmakers wanted to ban and force them to demand financial compensation for their work, even if they did not want it.
This is in fact canceled by any open licenses, such as Creative Commons, and denies a person's right to do what he wants.
The third amendment was the intention to create a tax on Internet news.
After massive lobbying by media groups, this amendment would allow any news agency to charge other companies or professionals if they use their stories.
This amendment has the potential to destroy the quality of on-line content. This is especially true for search engines such as Google or Bing, which they would have to pay for any news link that appeared in their search results.
George is still wondering what he is doing here….
