The UK could miss out on an EU-wide price cap on the cost of phone calls and texts New European copyright laws could outlaw memes on the internet, campaigners have claimed.
Digital rights groups are petitioning against the Copyright Directive, a new law that is supposed to protect rights-holders from copyright infringement on the web, which the European Parliament will vote on later this month.
Critics fear this will destroy the hugely popular internet culture of sharing and modifying recognisable images, often referred to as memes on social media. The pictures in question, which typically consist of scenes featured in popular films and TV series, may constitute a breach under the new law.
Campaigners at Copyright 4 Creativity said the proposals risk censoring free speech because it is likely that technology giants, afraid of hefty fines, will automatically remove content they deem a risk, ridding social media of satire, commentary and inevitably would destroy the internet as we know it.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and 56 other rights organisations sent an open letter to European lawmakers in October outlining their concerns about Article 13.
Article 13 appears to provoke such legal uncertainty that online services will have no other option than to monitor, filter and block EU citizens’ communications if they are to have any chance of staying in business, it read.
A spokesman for the European Commission said that the idea behind the proposal was to make sure artists could make a living from their creative ideas.
He said: The proposals to modernise EU copyright provisions will not harm freedom of expression on the internet.
They take into account technological developments that have already been introduced by some of the major players.
It is the latest digital drama to rattle the Commission, which was left red-faced after it emerged that it did not adhere to its own brand new data protection law, the General Data Protection Regulation.
The Telegraph highlighted that it was in breach after the May 25 deadline, but was told that the EU had its own framework and hoped that it would be compliant with GDPR soon.