News & Fox / Digital Why copyright laws are under fire New EU laws ‘to protect content creators’ have united consumer activists and tech firms in an unlikely alliance against the contentious changes BL PREMIUM

When anti-immigrant Australian minister Fraser Anning was hit with an egg by a teenager on live television, the video of this "egging" went viral.Anning’s deeply offensive comments may never have been seen by the global audience had 17-year-old Will Connolly — now known as "Egg Boy" — not done it.And because of the strict new copyright act passed last month by the EU, the footage from Australia’s Seven News network would also have been restricted from being used in the multiple memes that have emerged. Memes have thankfully been excluded from the law.Article 17 (originally article 13) of the EU Copyright Directive, which is colloquially known as the "upload filter", covers the "use of protected content" and will affect sites like YouTube especially badly.It is designed to ensure that any website which "gives the public access to copyright-protected works … uploaded by its users" gets permission from the copyright owners.On the face of it, it seems like a good idea, but it is conside...