New copyright rules: it's now or never. On Wednesday 12 September, the European Parliament votes on the copyright reform and everyone knows that it is the last call. In the event of a negative vote, the text will hardly be proposed again in the next legislature, since, in all probability, after the European elections in May 2019, the majority of the Strasbourg hall will be against the measure.
THE CONTENTS OF THE REFORM
The most important articles of the reform of the directive are 11 and 13. The first foresees that the giants of the Internet – from Google to Facebook, from Microsoft to Apple – pay publishers and journalists a fair compensation for the use of their content. The second introduces the licensing obligation – and therefore the payment of copyrights – for companies that broadcast audio and video via the web. Companies like Youtube, for example, will be responsible for blocking the loading of protected content. Today the giants of the Web can appropriate the contents without paying royalties, they use them to support their profits but, as has been repeatedly underlined, they do not pay taxes (if not in a completely marginal way) in the countries in which they operate.
THE FAKE NEWS AND THE LOBBYING OF THE GIANTS OF THE WEB
Warning: the directive does not impose any costs on users, does not limit their activity in any way and does not hinder the development of web 2.0 sites such as Wikipedia. It is important to underline this, given that the companies damaged by the reform have spread a series of fake news to get public opinion on their side: for example the imaginative "link tax" charged to users.
Not only. The internet giants have also launched an unprecedented lobbying campaign, clogging up the computers of officials and MEPs with 4,5 million e-mails, with the aim of influencing the vote.
THE FAILURE OF JULY
Wednesday's attempt is already the second attempt by the European Parliament, after the plenary in July refused to give the rapporteur Axel Voss (CDU-EPP) the task of negotiating the final text of the reform with the Council and the Commission. Now the deputies must vote on the amendments to the original text (as many as 255) and then express themselves again on the mandate for Voss.
FOR AND AGAINST. FIEG IN THE FIELD
All of the EPP, apart from the Polish component, are in favor of the reform. Socialists and Democrats of the PSE, on the other hand, are divided: the Italian Democratic Party and the Socialist parties of France, Portugal and Greece are in favor; against the German SPD, the Austrian Social Democrats and all the parties of the East. All the sovereignists will also vote No: M5S, Lega, Ukip, French lepenists, the Pis of the Polish Jaroslaw Kaczynski and the Swedish Democrats.
In Italy, Fieg, the federation of newspaper publishers, has published an appeal to Italian parliamentarians in the European Parliament for a fee in the main newspapers to support a fundamental reform to support quality information. “Tomorrow in Strasbourg we ask you to vote Yes – states the appeal – “to guarantee fair compensation to journalists and publishers for the distribution of their contents on the Internet, for a free and independent press and for reliable news, because the use of network will remain free, to guarantee European democratic values, to protect the work of journalists and companies, because 89% of your readers ask you to do so”.
