Google, Facebook, and other content aggregators will soon be forced to pay content creators. The latter can be attributed to the agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council to set up copyright rules. As a result, these platforms will have to buy licenses from content creators, reports Trustnodes on February 13.
Proposed New Law to Reward Content Creators
Based on reports, the European Parliament and the European Council are making efforts to see that musicians, performers, journalists, news publishers, Vbloggers, etc. are rewarded for their efforts. According to them, Google and Facebook make billions from these digital works without properly remunerating the owners of the ideas.
Therefore, a law has been proposed which will ensure that people are liable for any copyright infringement by their users. Websites like Wikipedia, Github, and several others whose content have been tagged for non-commercial use or are open source will be exempted.
Correcting a Situation of Just a Few Companies Reaping Profits
Axel Voss, a German politician and Member of the European Parliament who spoke to the media outlined that this is a step in the right direction to correct the current situation of only a few companies reaping profits. These are companies that have made away with huge sums of money without properly compensating the thousands of content creators whose work they rely on.
Voss further stated that the new rule will help to protect people’s living, establish freedom of expression, safeguard democracy, and even encourage startups. He added that it is a step that will prepare the internet for a future that benefits everyone instead of a selected few.
The Politician also said:
Currently, internet companies have little incentive to sign fair licensing agreements with rights holders, because they are not considered liable for the content that their users upload.
Preventing Publishers From Abusing the Law
More light into the proposed rule shows that room has also been made to prevent publishers from abusing it. In this case, snippets to their content that is shared will not infringe on their rights. It is also noted that “The ‘snippet’ can, therefore, continue to appear in a Google News newsfeeds, for example, or when an article is shared on Facebook, provided it is ‘very short.'”
While the law has been proposed, it needs to be voted by the European Parliament ministers or prime ministers of member states. If there is a positive outcome, then it will transform the way people deal with resources on the internet and even take it a step further by duly rewarding content creators.
