Free Republic

Tens of thousands of people have marched in cities across Germany to protest planned European Union copyright reforms that they fear will lead to online censorship. […] The most controversial section would require companies such as YouTube and Facebook to take responsibility for copyrighted material that’s uploaded to their platforms. Proponents say the new rules will help ensure authors, artists and journalists are paid. Opponents claim they could restrict freedom of speech, hamper online creativity and force websites to install filters. …

Video at link.

On Sept. 12, European Parliament voted for the Copyright Directive. This updating of online copyright tries to make certain media companies and publishers are paid for their work when shared on Facebook or YouTube and aggregated by such sites as Google News. Articles 11 and 13 of this law has been harshly criticized both by internet experts and companies. Article 11 grants publications copyright over any online content sharing. In practice, this means sites could charge services like Hacker News and Reddit for aggregating their stories. This is being called a link tax. Article 13 requires content sharing sites to...

A new copyright law from the European Union would lead to the banning of memes on the internet, campaigners are warning. The EU Copyright Directive intends to protect the intellectual property rights of people who upload their material to the internet. However, campaigners are warning the law will require “all content uploaded to the internet to be monitored and potentially deleted if a likeness to existing copyright is protected”. The campaign against a particular provision of the directive, Article 13, warns that online platforms would be economically damaged if they were forced to comply with its expensive obligations. The law...

Fresh off his success destabilizing the government in Egypt, President Obama is now taking aim at domestic tyrants — beginning with Republican Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin. This time, rather than help the Muslim Brotherhood assume power for the first time, Obama is desperately trying to keep public employee unions —call it the Collective Brotherhood — in power. Why? Unions spent $400 million dollars electing Obama in 2008, and although Barack does not appear to comprehend the damage crippling deficits do to the nation, he’s well aware of what a $400 million dollar hole will do to his re–election budget....