Tuesday 26 March 2019

BREAKING NEWS - EU Parliament approves copyright reform

The EU's somewhat controversial copyright reforms have been adopted by the European Parliament, with 348 votes in favor and 274 against in the European Parliament, meaning Articles 13 and 11 are one step further on to becoming enshrined in EU law. In the wake of the vote, the chair of ICMP, the global trade body for music publishing, Chris Butler said: “We extend our appreciation to MEPs across party lines and EU Member States for their hard work through this challenging legislative process. We are grateful for important provisions supporting songwriters and composers, recognising that music must be given its rightful value. “We're particularly pleased to secure sector-specific safeguards for music publishers in Articles 4 and 12. These battles were hard-fought, amount to crucial wins for music in Europe and are particularly important for our independent publisher members.” ICMP Director General John Phelan commented: “Four years of titanic tussling later, our work to solve the ‘Value Gap’ now begins a new stage after this vote. Namely, to ensure that those who make the music make a fair return. ICMP will keep working with all European governments to transpose this law appropriately. ‘Safe Harbours’ must not become archipelagos for platforms to devalue music. Today redoubles our determination in that mission.”

Proposals to delete Article 13 were not put to a vote. Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda tweeted that voting on individual amendments were rejected by a majority of just 5 votes, before tweeting "Dark day for internet freedom: The @Europarl_EN has rubber-stamped copyright reform including #Article13 and #Article11. MEPs refused to even consider amendments. The results of the final vote: 348 in favor, 274 against". 

The text now needs a formal approval by European ministers but is one major step closer to officially becoming law. It will then have to be transposed into national legislation by EU countries.

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