Tell the EU what you think!

winterbythesea:

The EU is currently looking for responses/opinions about measures for tackling illegal content online. This is clearly related to the proposed law, which would instate a “link tax” and could end fan-created content as we know it. They’re including fandom content in their copyright policies, because the law makers don’t understand how fandom and the internet work. They need to be told that there’s a difference.

Here’s the survey. If you’re an EU citizen, please fill it out; if not, please help signal boost. The repercussions if this law goes through will affect all of us, regardless of where we live.

Some tips for filling it out:

• If you tell them that you’ve come across illegal content, tell them it was resolved; we already have frameworks in place for this, and they’re not perfect, but they work
• Every chance you get, tell them it’s important to preserve freedom of expression online
• Every chance you get, tell them that algorithms are not a good solution for flagging inappropriate content
• Include a comment about differentiating between copyright infringement for profit/piracy, and copyright infringement for fun/fan works
• Tell them that copyright infringement, when done for fun and not for profit, can benefit creators more than hurt them, and a lot of creators actively encourage fan works
• Tell them that yes, we should absolutely do what we can to prevent criminal and terrorist activity that hurts people, but copyright is a completely different issue (which often doesn’t even hurt people financially) and needs to be dealt with differently

I’ve written a “position paper” which explains it all a bit more and details my opinion on it, which you’re welcome to read if you want: here’s a link.

Please, please help signal boost this and fill it out if you can. Tell them what you think. Tell them that there need to be exceptions for fan content, and that relying on algorithms to identify copyrighted material is a terrible idea. Save the internet and fandom.