EU 'Article 13': The end of Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Sportify ...

The approval of the European Union of 'Article 13' will take us back to the Middle Ages and we would no longer have Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram...

Surely you have heard for many years about internet censorship in China, a very hackneyed topic by politicians, comedians, etc. The European Union, supposedly the guarantor of the freedoms and rights of users, is about to reform the Copyright Law, a regulation that, if approved, would end the internet that we know today. The most important point and the fruit of all the controversies is 'Article 13' which establishes what content can be published on all platforms and web pages.

This rule has already been pre-approved, specifically in September this year it passed the first filter and was ready to be ratified by the European Parliament in January 2019, where it must be endorsed in a second vote.

The tech giants led by Google have started a campaign to inform and raise awareness to users about how this rule will affect users and internet freedom. This rule will affect YouTube and is that with the approval of this rule all content creators (including us), we must remove all content that has an image, video or music from third parties.

YouTube channels like elRubius, Auronplay, Mangel, La Vida Moderna or ours would suddenly disappear. We could not use Spotify or we would no longer have access to platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime TV or HBO.

So that it is better understood. All channels that use an image that they have not created, that in their videos have a piece of gameplay, content from another channel, a movie or a series or music, will automatically receive a 'strike' for each infraction and that means that in hundreds of millions of these will jump into all content created on European channels and therefore the channels will disappear. It is estimated that this will mean the disappearance of 50% of YouTube content.

This may be the least of the problems because we will not be able to access content that is made in the rest of the world. Come on, we will be on a European intranet without access to content from creators from other countries, since those creators will also have to adapt to the norm if they want their content to be seen in Europe.

What does 'Article 13' imply?

This article establishes that all platforms must ensure that the content they host does not violate copyright at any time. Technological giants such as Twitter, Google or Facebook are the main victims, but platforms such as Wikipedia or GitHub will also be affected and they will have to take measures by installing Artificial Intelligence systems that detect the content and directly block it.

Currently on YouTube for a video to be deleted, a complaint had to be made by the owner of the rights, but there was no monitoring of the uploaded content. The law establishes that platforms must monitor content on a massive scale and detect all violations.

What does 'Article 13' say?

Use of protected content by information society service providers that store and facilitate access to large amounts of works and other benefits uploaded by their users.

1. Information society service providers that store and provide public access to large amounts of works or other benefits uploaded by their users will adopt, in cooperation with the rights holders, the pertinent measures to ensure the correct functioning of the agreements concluded. with rights holders for the use of their works or other performances or to prevent works or other performances identified by the right holders in cooperation with service providers from being available in their services. Those measures, such as the use of effective content recognition techniques, will be appropriate and proportionate. The service providers will provide the rightholders with adequate information on the operation and deployment of the measures, as well as, where appropriate, adequate information on the recognition and use of the works and other benefits.
2. Member States shall ensure that the service providers referred to in paragraph 1 implement complaints and recourse mechanisms to which users can access in the event of a dispute over the application of the measures referred to in paragraph 1.
3. Member States shall facilitate, where appropriate, cooperation between information society service providers and rights holders through stakeholder dialogues to determine best practices, such as content recognition techniques adequate and proportionate, taking into account, in particular, the nature of the services, the availability of technologies and their effectiveness in the light of technological evolution.

Google against 'Article 13'

After the resolution was known, the first to oppose this initiative was Google and it is carrying out a great campaign to try to change this law.

Richard Gingras, VP of Google News has spoken with The Guardian about the new regulation and how it will affect services such as Google News and YouTube. Above all, the problem for Google is that YouTube is a very notorious source of income for the company.

Google gives as an example the video clip of Despacito by Luis Fonsi. It is explained that this video is copyrighted, from the different takes of the video to the sound. The problem is that YouTube has agreements with several companies to have this video, but there is a part of the rights of unknown origin. If 'Article 13' applies, this video must be blocked for possible copyright infringement.

The number of videos on YouTube is impossible to measure and it would be very difficult to manage even for a giant like Google. It is estimated that every minute 400 hours of video are uploaded to the platform and as is understandable, reviewing all the content will cease to exist. Google despite this has a tool called Content ID that analyzes the content that is uploaded to the platform and that already caused the artists to reveal themselves against Google last year for copyright reasons, but in this case the creators have sided from Google, including Luis Fonsi.

YouTube has a giant database where licenses and usage policies based on Content ID are stored. What will happen if the EU approves the controversial rule is that the tool must be more exhaustive and block any content that has been identified as protected content. Google to some extent agrees with the substance and the objective of the article of discord, but they warn: "the current version as it is written could have serious consequences"

Google's proposal

The objective of the article is supported by the company, but it provides an alternative. They have proposed a more balanced text that protects the usurpation of authors' rights without depriving users and content creators of the rights to share content on the network.

Google wants to collaborate with other platforms and rights holders to identify content that is proprietary. Prior notice of notice prior to withdrawal and good faith negotiation are proposed to easily identify rights and licenses. The company says that Content ID manages 98% of the rights and that for this it has disbursed 2.500 million euros.

YouTube already asks content creators to make a video about article 13 and to speak on social networks with the hashtag #SaveYoutInternet and they have even created a page where they explain all this.

Are there solutions?

Some say that content should be switched to English, since this restriction would not apply to the Anglo-Saxon market and it will allow the filter to pass avoiding blocking of the content. This is not really a solution and not everyone has the ability to translate content into English and even less understand it (at least, in Spain)

The text is not yet final and could be modified, but for this it is necessary that the creators, users, copyright managers, internet platforms and politicians negotiate. This seems very complicated, since politicians are not for the job and it is what happens when moth-eaten people with archaic mentalities start to legislate things that they do not understand and do not want to understand.

Rights activists Vinton Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee have written an open letter in which they argue: “Article 13 takes an unprecedented step towards transforming the Internet from an open platform for sharing and innovation into a tool for automated surveillance and control of its users.”

How does this affect Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinedIn?

Although Google has the upper hand, platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinedIn must control the content that is uploaded and if copyright is violated, they will be obliged to remove the content.

To give us an idea, if we upload a photo with friends to Facebook and the television is on in the background, the photo could be deleted immediately. The same would happen on Instagram. The memes would be terminated since the image is copyrighted and we could not retweet third party content, as it would be a violation of copyright. Infographics or third-party content could not be shared on LinkedIn because we would be infringing intellectual property.

How will this affect Hardwaresera?

We would have to close. Both our website and our channel should immediately close when using images from the internet, other media or media images, such as those in the press releases that we publish on the web.

Imagine how absurd it is that the estimates on Thursdays that we do based on the Coolmod website should ask Coolmod for explicit permission to continue making the videos, but even so it would not be enough. Coolmod should ask the brands for permission to publish the images of their products and we should also ask the brands or that the permission for Coolmod add us.

If everything continues like this, it is possible that in January we will have to close doors and say goodbye to all of you since it is impossible for us to install an AI to detect copyright due to the very high cost and not pay for each visit (yes, we would have to pay ourselves so that you can access)

The problem is not only for us, but also for other hardware media or any other type of content and the same for the content of technology channels, GamePlays channels such as elRubius, eSports broadcasts such as ESL and the list goes on.