International

Today the European Parliament votes on the enforcement of authors' rights on internet platforms, such as Youtube. The SP has always stood up for the rights of creative artists, but opposes unnecessary censorship.

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong, commenting on the vote, said “At the moment authors' rights are protected after the event, for example if someone puts a copyrighted photo by a world-famous photographer on the internet when they have no right to do so, it can be removed. The proposals we're voting on now go further than that, however. They impose an obligation on internet platforms to install filters which prevent a copyrighted clip or photo being placed on a site. These filters are extremely expensive and must be supplied by the authors or by their organisations. For big names that's no problem, but for niche artists and the less well-known the filters will be unaffordable. In practice only major record labels will be able to profit from this.”

This is the second time that the European Parliament has voted on this matter. Just before the summer recess the proposals were rejected, but now they've been brought forward again. “Now we''ll also vote on articles 11 and 13, which have in the meantime become notorious as possibly allowing censorship,” said De Jong. “We've had thousands of emails on this, as well as tweets and phone calls, all from concerned citizens. They can count on the SP.”