A law first proposed in 2016 by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and intended to protect the rights of journalists and other creative entities online may prove disastrous to memes. That’s a claim that’s being forwarded by digital rights groups warning against the E.U. Copyright Directive formally known as Article 13. For those who may not be aware, Article 13 is presented as a law that protects the content from being shared without authorization. That includes materials made professionally or in “living rooms” and irrespective of whether that’s been published and dispersed online or off. The E.U. claims that the sole purpose of the law would be to ensure that those who can make money from their creative ideas are able to do so. The idea that it would be harmful in any way to freedoms centered around self-expression via connected technologies has been flatly denied.
That hasn’t brought an end to concerns, however. The current campaign against Article 31 claims that internet memes and other, similar user-generated content – most often inspired or including the work of others – is itself a form of self-expression. The group says that is precisely the kind of content that would be most affected by the proposed law. What’s more, it has argued that the law would allow larger companies an advantage in exerting greater control over what can or cannot be seen and where. It’s a concern that is certainly worth considering since it could be argued that a larger company has the capability of bankrolling long-running lawsuits often required in cases stemming from copied ideas. That’s something that has been seen both recently and over the past several years with patent lawsuits.
However, it bears pointing out that the above-mentioned patent suits are typically focused on property associated with ideas that are officially registered in advance. With consideration for both sides of this argument, it is difficult to say whether the law would actually have that negative impact. If it did, it could bring an end to a few long-running forms of creative communication. Conversely, the law doesn’t appear to go much further than the copyright laws which protect other forms of media – at least at the surface level. So, Article 13 may actually be the best way to approach the theft of intellectual property or to at least lessen the issues it tries to address.