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EU strengthens copyright laws for news publishers, content creators

By Nicholas Sakelaris
The European Union passed stronger copyright laws for content creators, giving them leverage when negotiating with tech giants. Photo courtesy of Create Health/Flickr
The European Union passed stronger copyright laws for content creators, giving them leverage when negotiating with tech giants. Photo courtesy of Create Health/Flickr

March 26 (UPI) -- The European Parliament adopted new copyright rules that give news publishers and content creators the power to negotiate with Google and other tech giants over their work.

The deal requires tech companies to have licensing agreements with creators before their work can be published on platforms that include YouTube or Google News. It also requires that copyrighted content be removed from videos.

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"The directive aims to ensure that the longstanding rights and obligations of copyright law also apply to the internet," the EU said in a statement. "YouTube, Facebook and Google News are some of the internet household names that will be affected by this legislation. The directive also strives to ensure that the internet remains a space for freedom of expression."

It passed 348-274 with 36 abstentions.

The goal is to make sure content creators are paid properly for their work when featured online. News publishers can negotiate deals on behalf of journalists for news stories used by aggregators. When a story appears in a Google News feed, it must be short, according to the new policy.

Uploading copyrighted works for quotation, criticism, review, parody or pastiche is more protected now than before. That includes popular memes and gifs.

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The controversial law still needs formal approval by European ministers.

The European Parliament also voted to end seasonal time changes in 2021.

EU countries will decide whether they want to make summer time permanent, meaning an hour ahead, or remain in standard winter time, an hour behind. Countries that stick with summer time will make their last time change in March 2021. Countries that go with winter time will make their last time change in October 2021.

MEPs originally considered instituting the changes this year but delayed it until 2021. There are concerns that having two different time standards in the EU will disrupt commerce and cause confusion. The EU could ultimately decide to delay this until 2022.

The EU unified summer time changes in 1980 so all countries would follow the same directive.

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