How to Save Online Games With User-Generated Content Now Threatened by the EU's Article 13 (Hint: It Won't Be Easy)

VRChat avatars based on copyrighted content

Article 13, the EU's Copyright Directive, an existential threat to every single online games/MMOs with user-generated content including Minecraft, Roblox, Second Life, VRChat, and beyond -- for reasons explained here -- has just been approved in committee by a single vote. I asked the EFF's Cory Doctorow what that means, and his answer was somewhat succinct: "TL;DR: now we have to win in the whole Parliament".

His longer answer is on Boing Boing now - snip below:

Now the proposal goes to the "plenary" -- the entire body of Members of the European Parliament, from all 28 nations -- for a vote. The plenary next meets in early July, and then recesses for summer and comes back in late September.

The fight just got a lot harder. The plenary has a strong bias for voting to approve the language that emerges from its specialised committees, rather than tying up the scarce Parliamentary time with lengthy, line-by-line debates that might delay votes on other legislation...

The good news is that EU elections are coming up and the MEPs are vulnerable on this issue: breaking the internet is an ever-more-unpopular proposition, and the lesson from the ACTA and SOPA is that when internet users are roused to risks to their internet access, they can mobilise to sway lawmakers.

But the bad news is that the fight just keeps getting harder from here on in. Winning in JURI meant flipping a single committee member. No we'll need to convince a majority of Parliamentarians. If we lose there, we'll have to bring action in the European Court of Justice, a multi-year process that could leave internet users vulnerable to censorship for most of decade, while these badly considered rules hand an enduring, unassailable advantage to the US Big Tech giants.

Much more here. My strong suggestion is you share his post with anyone in the European Union who votes and who cares about keeping virtual user-generated content communities online. It's really that dire:

"Under Article 13, companies that allow user-generated content of ANY KIND would have to design some kind of machine-learning-based censorship system that used catalogs of known copyrighted works to check user submissions for copyright violations," as Cory explains to me. "Google spent $60 million developing the ContentID filter system that is only capable of analyzing audio-tracks of video." 

But Google just created that for YouTube videos -- the filter challenge for online games and worlds is even greater: "That means that everything from choreography to bitmaps to 3D meshes to music and moving images would have to be filtered by games companies; no one has ever tried to build this kind of filter, but the starting price is $60 million, so expect the cost to be upwards of that."

More on that here.

 

Comments

[sirhc desantis]

"Under Article 13, companies that allow user-generated content of ANY KIND would have to design some kind of machine-learning-based censorship system that used catalogs of known copyrighted works to check user submissions for copyright violations,"

It says nothing of the sort. Did you actually read it? https://tinyurl.com/y87eg7xv

Or if thats too much work : (note - 'appropriate and proportionate')

Article 13
Use of protected content by information society service providers storing and giving access to large amounts of works and other subject-matter uploaded by their users

1.Information society service providers that store and provide to the public access to large amounts of works or other subject-matter uploaded by their users shall, in cooperation with rightholders, take measures to ensure the functioning of agreements concluded with rightholders for the use of their works or other subject-matter or to prevent the availability on their services of works or other subject-matter identified by rightholders through the cooperation with the service providers. Those measures, such as the use of effective content recognition technologies, shall be appropriate and proportionate. The service providers shall provide rightholders with adequate information on the functioning and the deployment of the measures, as well as, when relevant, adequate reporting on the recognition and use of the works and other subject-matter.

2.Member States shall ensure that the service providers referred to in paragraph 1 put in place complaints and redress mechanisms that are available to users in case of disputes over the application of the measures referred to in paragraph 1.

3.Member States shall facilitate, where appropriate, the cooperation between the information society service providers and rightholders through stakeholder dialogues to define best practices, such as appropriate and proportionate content recognition technologies, taking into account, among others, the nature of the services, the availability of the technologies and their effectiveness in light of technological developments.

[Psiphon]

Member States shall facilitate, where appropriate, the cooperation between the information society service providers .

[Test Dpc]

Those measures, such as the use of effective content recognition technologies, shall be appropriate and proportionate.

[Joe Nickence (Joey1058)]

@sirhc desantis, What Article 13 "implies", is that people using copyrighted works must surrender the use of those works, unless they are properly licensed and paid for. Quoting the letter of the law outside of a legal court of law is a waste of time for all concerned. This is why there is such pandemonium over GDPR. Common people with no need to know about law, are being forced to read fine print, and one mis-crossed T, or undotted I, will land them in court with hefty fines.

Rather than speaking legalese, why not offer service to those in need of trying to understand this chaos?

[irihapeti]

any chaos to a business model is for those hosts who allowed their users to upload other peoples content. The use-first and care-about-permission-after-the-fact days are coming to an end

many hosts are going to have to change their business model. For creators this is a good thing

[Digitalwhatsup]

Content is always king. Everyone need to take care of content strategy for better results in Search engine results page.

[compoundbowpro]

The good news is that EU elections are coming up and the MEPs are vulnerable on this issue: breaking the internet is an ever-more-unpopular proposition, and the lesson from the ACTA and SOPA is that when internet users are roused to risks to their internet access, they can mobilise to sway lawmakers.

[dentalprove]

But Google just created that for YouTube videos...

[headfonic]

Now the proposal goes to the "plenary" -- the entire body of Members of the European Parliament, from all 28 nations -- for a vote

[Blokada]

I think google does something like that for youtube. Blokada apk
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