History is made: petition opposing the EU's #Article13 internet censorship...
As of this writing, the petition opposing Article 13 -- the part of the EU's new Copyright Directive that mandates copyright filters for online communities, services and platforms -- has 4,920,535...
View ArticleThe media company paid by the EU Parliament to make a video promoting a...
Yesterday, I wrote about how MEP Julia Reda resolved the mystery of how the European Parliament came to produce a batshit smear-campaign video promoting the new Copyright Directive and smearing the...
View ArticleWhy #Article13 inevitably requires filters
When the German MEP Axel Voss took over the new EU Copyright Directive and reinstated the controversial Article 13, he was explicit that the idea of the rule was to make all online services use...
View ArticleWith days to go until the #CopyrightDirective vote, #Article13's father...
The new EU Copyright Directive will be up for its final vote in the week of Mar 25, and like any piece of major EU policy, it has been under discussion for many years and had all its areas of...
View ArticleThe European Copyright Directive: What is it, and why has it drawn more...
During the week of March 25, the European Parliament will hold the final vote on the Copyright Directive, the first update to EU copyright rules since 2001; normally this would be a technical affair...
View ArticleMore than 130 European businesses tell the European Parliament: Reject the...
The EU's Copyright Directive will be voted on in the week of March 25 (our sources suggest the vote will take place on March 27th, but that could change); the Directive has been controversial all...
View ArticleThe Best of Europe’s Web Went Dark Today. We Can’t Let That Be Our Future.
We’re into the final days before members of the European Parliament vote on the Copyright and the Digital Single Market Directive, home of the censoring Article 13, and the anti-news Article 11....
View ArticleRobocopyright: Dan Bull's rap anthem for the defeat of #Article13
Just in time for a continent-wide day of street demonstrations against Article 13 and the new Copyright Directive, British rapper Dan Bull (previously) has released a furious, amazing new song about...
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More than 100,000 Europeans march against #Article13
Today marksed the largest street protests ever in the history of internet freedom struggles, with more than 100,000 Europeans participating in mass demonstrations across the region -- more than 50...
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How #Article13 is like the Inquisition: John Milton Against the EU...
Censorship before or censorship after? The EU Copyright Directive rekindles the oldest fight in the history of free speech debates, first waged by John Milton in 1644. Then, like now, policy-makers...
View ArticleArticle 13 will wreck the internet because Swedish MEPs accidentally pushed...
In the EU, if a Member of the Parliament presses the wrong button on a vote, they can have the record amended to show what their true intention was, but the vote is binding. Today, the European...
View ArticleAfter months of insisting that #Article13 doesn't require filters, top EU...
The months of debate over Article 13 of the new EU Copyright Directive (passed in a tragicomedy of errors when some MEPs got confused and pushed the wrong buttons), the most contentious issue was...
View ArticleAs the EU Copyright Directive was approved, Germany admitted it requires...
The EU Copyright Directive was voted through the Parliament because a handful of MEPs accidentally pushed the wrong button; this week, it passed through the Council -- representing the national...
View ArticleWe lost the fight for balance in the EU's Copyright Directive, but here's...
The fight over the EU's Copyright Directive was the biggest fight in European political history: more than 100,000 people marched against it in 50 cities; more than 5,000,000 people signed a petition...
View ArticleCopyright filters are automatically removing copies of the Mueller Report
During the bitter debate over the EU's Copyright Directive, with its mandate for copyright filters that would automatically censor anything that anyone claimed to be infringing, opponents repeatedly...
View ArticleOttawa! I'll be at the Writers Festival this Saturday night (then Berlin for...
This Saturday, May 4, at 7:30PM, I'll be presenting at the Ottawa Writers Festival, talking about my novel Radicalized and how it ties into surveillance, monopoly, refugees, climate change, racism and...
View ArticleNotre Dame's new spire might be copyrighted and blocked by EU filters
There's a proposal in the works to replace Notre Dame's spire -- which was a relatively modern addition -- with a new, starchitect-designed "statement" spire, which will be copyrightable under the...
View ArticleCompetition can fix Big Tech, but only if we don't make "bigness" a legal...
I'm all for making Big Tech small again and fixing the internet so that it's not just five giant websites filled with screenshots from the other four, not to mention doing something about market...
View ArticlePodcast: Steering with the Windshield Wipers
In my latest podcast (MP3), I read my May Locus column: Steering with the Windshield Wipers. It makes the argument that much of the dysfunction of tech regulation -- from botched anti-sex-trafficking...
View ArticleSony's copyright bots remove a band's own release of its new video
The Sheffield-based experimental music act 65daysofstatic has a new album coming out in September, called "Replicr, 2019." Today, the band began its launch publicity by releasing a video from the...
View ArticleFirst detailed look at Poland's challenge to the EU Copyright Directive
After the EU Copyright Directive passed with a slim majority that only carried because some MEPs got confused and pressed the wrong button, the government of Poland filed a legal challenge with the...
View ArticleAfter the passage of the EU Copyright Directive, Google nukes Google News France
The passage of the EU's Copyright Directive last March marked the most controversial rulemaking process in EU history, with lawmakers squeaking a narrow victory that relied on confused MEPs pushing...
View ArticlePodcast: False Flag
In my latest podcast (MP3), I read my Green European Journal short story about the terrible European Copyright Directive which passed last March, False Flag. Published in December 2018, the story...
View ArticlePodcast of Affordances: a new science fiction story that climbs the terrible...
In my latest podcast (MP3), I read my short story "Affordances," which was commissioned for Slate/ASU's Future Tense Fiction. it's a tale exploring my theory of "the shitty technology adoption curve,"...
View ArticleEFF announces major new EU focus and two amazing new hires
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just hired two new staffers focused on the EU: Icelandic poet, artist, and free expression activist Birgitta Jónsdóttir, and European Internet policy expert...
View ArticleAmericans should definitely be worried about the EU's new copyright rules
The passage -- through MEPs erroneously pushing the wrong buttons! -- of the new EU Copyright Directive last March means that online platforms operating in the EU will have to implement filters that...
View ArticleGerman proposal to control links to news stories: headlines, 3s of video, 128...
One of the two very controversial proposals in last year's EU Copyright Directive fight was the "link tax," which would require licenses for links to news-sites that contained even a few consecutive...
View ArticleYoutube's Content ID has become the tool of choice for grifty copyfraudsters...
Last year's EU Copyright Directive will require online services to install upload filters similar to Youtube's Content ID system, a $100m, voluntary tool that allows rightsholders to claim video and...
View ArticleWarner claims ownership over the numbers 36 and 50, and demonetizes Youtube...
Warner subsidiary Otter Media has a division called Fullscreen ("a social content company for talent and brands") that has been demonetizing Youtubers' videos that use the numbers 36 and 50 (and...
View ArticleBrexit means the UK will shelve the EU Copyright Directive (for now)
Last year, the EU adopted the incredibly controversial Copyright Directive (it passed by only five votes, and afterwards 10 MEPs said they'd got confused and pushed the wrong buttons!): now, EU member...
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