This issue is still not resolved and is still threatening us - people who add content to the internet, such as blog posts, forum posts, Wikipedia articles. James Heilman recently posted on twitter:

"Europe looks like they are about to pass laws in Feb of 2019 to try to hand the Internet over to "the legacy companies who used to control movies, music, news and books". This is not getting the push back it deserves."

This blog post by European Member of Parliament Julia Reda gives a good overview of this whole mess and its history:
juliareda.eu/2019/02/eu-copyright-final-text/

She states:
"For two years we’ve debated different drafts and versions of the controversial Articles 11 and 13. Now, there is no more ambiguity: This law will fundamentally change the internet as we know it – if it is adopted in the upcoming final vote. But we can still prevent that!

Read on for details about the text, how we got here and what to do now:"

And also (to see the hyperlinks follow the link that I gave at the start):

This is where you come in
The final Parliament vote will happen mere weeks before the EU elections. Most MEPs – and certainly all parties – are going to be seeking reelection. Articles 11 and 13 will be defeated if enough voters make these issues relevant to the campaigns. (Here’s how to vote in the EU elections – change the language to one of your country’s official ones for specific information)

It is up to you to make clear to your representatives: Their vote on whether to break the internet with Articles 11 and 13 will make or break your vote in the EU elections. Be insistent – but please always stay polite.

- Look up your representatives’ voting behavior at SaveYourInternet.eu
- Call or visit your MEPs’ offices (in Brussels, Strasbourg or their local constituency)
- Visit campaign and party events and bring up the topic
- Sign the record-breaking petition and spread the word, if you haven’t yet

Together, we can still stop this law.

Regards,
Elisabeth

Just to update you on developments (I had signed the petition): I received the following in formation by e-mail from the petition website:

+++++++++

We made it! Today the majority of members of the EU-Parliament voted against the planned tightening of copyright laws! Amazing! Thank you for your persistent and loud protest. Watch our victory video now and share it:

facebook.com/Change.orgDeutschland/videos/1935701369795302/

The Members of the EU-Parliament took the concerns of the citizens seriously and accordingly into consideration! Today we prevented hasty decision-making by the Parliament.

Upcoming September copyright laws will be renegotiated. Hopefully, there will be a definite No against upload filters. This ‘Thank you’ goes out to everyone, who fought alongside us against this policy change. We did save the Internet together!

Yesterday we got to deliver 736.000 signatures to the EU-Parliament in Straßbourg by a small team. Within 24 hours another 100.000 people decided to support us! Wow! Share this grand victory:

facebook.com/Change.orgDeutschland/videos/1935701369795302/

Once more: Thank you for your Dedication & Support!

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For more details on the ins and outs of this copyright directive, you can also read here:
infojustice.org/archives/40128
(WHAT CAN THE COPYRIGHT DIRECTIVE VOTE TELL US ABOUT THE STATE OF DIGITAL RIGHTS?)

Interestingly, I saw nothing about all this in the mainstream media in Germany or the UK. I guess it might be too complex to explain to the general public.

For me personally, I got interested in this issue after being alerted to it by fellow Wikipedians. It could have very negative effects on our Wikipedia work (which is explained in this link which Arno also mentioned above: blog.wikimedia.org/2018/06/14/dont-force...ies-with-algorithms/)

Regards,
Elisabeth

For a rather comprehensive response do take a look at what the Max Planck Institute has written: www.ip.mpg.de/fileadmin/ipmpg/content/st..._Moscon-rev-18_9.pdf

If you wish to take action on this question, here is a link to a petition:
www.change.org/p/european-parliament-sto...ry-save-the-internet

Regards

Dear all,

As we are all still trying to figure out in which way we are impacted by the EU GDPR policy and how to be compliant with it, we would like to draw your attention to the new EU Copyright Directive that the EU parliament will vote on next week, 5th July. It has already passed an initial vote by the EU Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/17482554/eu-e...-13-passes-juri-vote

This directive, especially Articles 11 and 13 is seen as very critical in many ways and could impede the free flow of information in the internet. Article 11 stipulates a “link tax,” which would force online platforms to buy licenses from media companies before linking to their stories (like the above link). Article 13 stipulates an “upload filter,” which would require that everything uploaded online in the EU is checked for copyright infringement.

Julia Reda, Member of the European Parliament, criticises the directive in that it “seeks to limit our ability to actively participate online and it benefits the business models of media conglomerates: “Censorship machines” for internet platforms due to the obligation to scan all uploads, a “link tax” for news content and a very narrow exception for text and data mining would curtail how we can share links, upload media and work with data.”

Everyday things like sharing snippets of news articles without a license would be an infringement, also tweeting a famous headline, or posting a blog to social media (with preview pic and text snippet) would be subject to licencing. The obligation to scan all uploads would not just apply to commercial sites, but also to projects like Wikipedia blog.wikimedia.org/2018/06/14/dont-force...ies-with-algorithms/ that aren’t run for profit, and which expressly only allow uploads of photos licensed for public re-use.

Hence, this directive could also have an enormous impact on how the SuSanA Forum, Social Media and Library of SuSanA works.
Unfortunately, this new EU Directive is coming under the shadow of the recent and ongoing GDPR activity and has received very little attention in the mainstream media.

The draft of the directive can be found here: eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52016PC0593

Regards