Petition Against Article 11 and Article 13 Reaches 625,000 Signatures

A petition against the link tax and the censorship machine (AKA article 11 and article 13) has reached 625,000 signatures.

Last week, we brought you news of an online petition that demands that European lawmakers vote down the infamous proposed copyright laws in Europe. At the time of our report, that petition reached a half a million signatures, signifying a major milestone.

Since our report, that petition has ballooned to a massive 625,000 signatures. As of this writing, we see the petition has reached an impressive 628,915 signatures. That number continues to grow seemingly by the minute as more and more people realize that there are things they can do to stop these proposed copyright laws.

If anything, it shows that European’s are not happy with these laws and are willing to act to stop them. Across the Eurozone, more and more people are learning about the proposal and are not happy with what they see.

Article 11, often dubbed the “link tax”, would force publishers to pay a tax for what ultimately amounts to citing their sources. Should someone post something with a link, that said platform would need to pay a license fee for the privilege of linking to that article or content. As word spread of this particular article, people in Europe hit the streets to protest the legislation.

Meanwhile, article 13 is often dubbed the censorship machine or the upload filter. As we reported earlier, the proposed law would compel platforms that accept user generated content to install “upload filters”. Those filters would search for evidence of copyrighted material. If there is copyrighted material in that content, then it simply will not get posted. The problem, as critics point out, is that such filters will not recognize legal exceptions such as education, criticism, or parody. As such, all use of copyrighted material, legal or otherwise, would effectively become banned on European services.

A vote on these proposals is expected later this week. Earlier, it passed the European legal affairs committee (JURI). This in spite of the fact that the proposed laws were being almost universally rejected by European’s at the time. The fear is that because it passed that committee, it is gaining momentum amongst lawmakers and could become law soon. As such, it may become increasingly difficult to stop unless there is considerable push back from citizens. Clearly, we are seeing that groundswell rising and continue to gather momentum.

Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.