On Tuesday 26^th March 2019, the European Parliament cleared the first change to the EU’s copyright rules since the turn of the century.

With 348 votes to 274, the new Copyright Directive was finally passed, and means online platforms (namely, websites) will be liable for users’ copyright infringement from the year 2021.

This is pretty big news, but not really cause for panic. Let me explain why.

The Copyright Directive is contentious

In February, people were still campaigning for the Copyright Directive to be blocked.

This largely centred around two elements:

• Article 13: forces all but the smallest of websites to stop users uploading copyrighted content that hasn’t been authorised; and
• Article 11 (sometimes referred to as the ‘link tax’): denies the ability to re-publish anything but “individual words or very short extracts of a press publication”.

Why are people cheesed off with this? Well, Article 13 means owners and operators of web services that provide content will need to install costly (and potentially unreliable) upload filters designed to check for copyrighted material uploaded to their service.

Article 15, on the other hand, essentially gives publishers carte blanche to charge people who have quoted large snippets of their work - hence the reference to it being a tax.

Cue lots of protesting on either side of the fence and judicious use of #yes2copyright on social media from the creatives who wanted the Copyright Directive to be introduced.

Why you shouldn’t panic

There’s no doubting that the prospect of having to use expensive filtering software on your content-based website will be unpalatable for many, but there’s a couple of things to bear in mind about the Copyright Directive.

Firstly, if you’re a business which, like many, publishes its own content on its own blog, you’re unlikely to be impacted by the new rules. Why? It’s simple; providing you’re writing original content (as I am here), you own the copyright.

If you have guest posters, that’s another matter, but these rules should simply mean that we all pay closer attention to those relationships and ensure everyone lives by the mantra of creating fresh, unique content (and avoiding quoting sources too heavily). That can only be a good thing.

Secondly, if you do run a website which makes its living from publishing content, you may not need to install the filters required in 2021 if you pull in less than 5m unique visitors in any given month (and that’s a lot). For most websites of that kind, forcing contributors to sign up and confirm compliance with the Content Directive should be enough.

There are even partial limits to copyright liability for smaller operators for the first three years of their existence.

We should also remember why these rules are being put into practice. In my opinion, far from a money-grabbing exercise on behalf of the authorities and publishers, it protects what is rightfully the property of content creators, and without them, the internet would be a very dull place.

Need further info?

This stuff fascinates me, as you can probably tell. Not just because it affects the services I provide as a marketing consultant, either - it impacts everything we do online.

If you’re still a little perplexed by the Copyright Directive or just want to chat through what you may (or may not) need to do to your own website and strategy when it comes into effect, just get in touch!