#1 Making Platform primarily liable leads to filtering, even when filtering is not mentioned

Article 17’s [ex Art. 13] various versions creates a system whereby platforms face an increased (direct) liability for the content uploaded by their users if it infringes copyright. As a result, these platforms are likely to overblock even legal content and use automated techniques to avoid being sued, which will mean users will no longer be able to share and experience the content they were used to find online.

Our Ability To Post Content On The Internet Will Be Limited By A Censorship Machine

Some of the content uploaded on the Internet infringes the copyright of rightholders (which are often not the content creators but intermediaries and investors such as recording or film studios) and content creators complain that due to the digital evolution, they make less money than they used to (the so-called ‘value gap’). This does not reflect the reality accurately, specifically in the case of the music industry that year after year announce that their incomes keep increasing. However, what they claim is that some platforms (YouTube, Vimeo… ) do not pay them enough when they stream copyrighted content: that is what they call the “value gap” (the gap between what rightsholders think would be fair as a compensation and what platforms pay them).

Article 17 [ex Art. 13] claims to address these problems but does so it in a way that hampers the way the Internet has been functioning so far by asking platforms to put in place costly and opaque solutions to pre-screen our content. This proposal would require intermediaries such as Facebook and YouTube to constantly police their platforms with censorship machines, often with no human element involved in the process. It will mean that you will no longer be able to upload or enjoy the same content as you used to, as automated blocking is likely to stop (legitimate) content of ever making it online. Analyses by EDRi of the European Commission and JURI proposals show the underlying threats in Article 17’s [ex Art. 13] logic.

And what’s worse: none of the versions of Article 17 [ex Art. 13] make life better for creators. Article 17 [ex Art. 13] actually makes no mention of creators: only rightholders.