Nixon Peabody LLP

  • People
  • Capabilities
  • Insights
  • About

Trending Topics

    • People
    • Capabilities
    • Insights
    • About
    • Locations
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Alumni

    Practices

    View All

    • Affordable Housing
    • Community Development Finance
    • Corporate & Finance
    • Cybersecurity & Privacy
    • Environmental
    • Franchising & Distribution
    • Government Investigations & White Collar Defense
    • Healthcare
    • Intellectual Property
    • International Services
    • Labor & Employment
    • Litigation
    • Private Wealth & Advisory
    • Project Finance
    • Public Finance
    • Real Estate
    • Regulatory & Government Relations

    Industries

    View All

    • Cannabis
    • Consumer
    • Energy
    • Entertainment
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Higher Education
    • Infrastructure
    • Manufacturing
    • Non Profit
    • Real Estate
    • Technology

    Value-Added Services

    View All

    • Alternative Fee Arrangements

      Developing innovative pricing structures and alternative fee agreement models that deliver additional value for our clients.

    • Continuing Education

      Advancing professional knowledge and offering credits for attorneys, staff and other professionals.

    • Crisis Advisory

      Helping clients respond correctly when a crisis occurs.

    • DEI Strategic Services

      Providing our clients with legal, strategic, and practical advice to make transformational changes in their organizations.

    • eDiscovery

      Leveraging law and technology to deliver sound solutions.

    • Global Services

      Delivering seamless service through partnerships across the globe.

    • Innovation

      Leveraging leading-edge technology to guide change and create seamless, collaborative experiences for clients and attorneys.

    • IPED

      Industry-leading conferences focused on affordable housing, tax credits, and more.

    • Legal Project Management

      Providing actionable information to support strategic decision-making.

    • Legally Green

      Teaming with clients to advance sustainable projects, mitigate the effects of climate change, and protect our planet.

    • Nixon Peabody Trust Company

      Offering a range of investment management and fiduciary services.

    • NP Capital Connector

      Bringing together companies and investors for tomorrow’s new deals.

    • NP Second Opinion

      Offering fresh insights on cases that are delayed, over budget, or off-target from the desired resolution.

    • NP Trial

      Courtroom-ready lawyers who can resolve disputes early on clients’ terms or prevail at trial before a judge or jury.

    • Social Impact

      Creating positive impact in our communities through increasing equity, access, and opportunity.

    1. Home
    2. Insights
    3. Articles
    4. EU's new Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive ratified despite controversyArticles

    Article

    EU's new Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive ratified despite controversy

    April 22, 2019

    Share

    Karina Puttieva

    Last week, the EU’s highly controversial Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive cleared the final hurdle.

    Last week, the EU’s highly controversial Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive cleared the final hurdle. The European Council ratified the Directive, just weeks after the Directive successfully passed in the European Parliament. Now, with the approval of both the Council and the Parliament, the Directive is poised to go into effect in two years.

    The Directive overhauls copyright law in the European Union and has faced massive protests and criticism from digital advocates all over Europe over the contents of Article 13 (renumbered as Article 17 after a recent update). Article 13 of the Directive shifts the responsibility for flagging copyright violations from owners of the copyrighted content to the online platforms themselves. Tech companies and activists alike have stressed that compliance will be nearly impossible even for the tech giants—to say nothing of the smaller outlets—and may change the face of the internet as we know it. Many worry that if platforms are forced to police content, they will opt to ban certain types of content altogether, delivering a huge blow to freedom of expression on the internet. To top it off, the Directive is notoriously unclear: while its language clearly suggests that gifs and memes may become a thing of the past, European lawmakers have insisted that was not the case. Of course, in the U.S., Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act continues to protect online platforms from liability for violations of law committed by its users, but in the EU, when it comes to copyright violations, those protections will cease to exist.

    Notably, unlike Regulations (for instance, the GDPR), which become law once they are passed by the central EU institutions, Directives have to be written into each member country’s national law. The two-year grace period is rarely strictly enforced so the change may take even longer, buying the Directive’s opponents some time to bring a potential legal challenge.

    PrivacyInternational

    Subscribe to stay informed of the latest legal news, alerts, and business trends.Subscribe

    • People
    • Capabilities
    • Insights
    • About
    • Locations
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Alumni
    • © 2023 Nixon Peabody. All rights reserved
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Statement of Client Rights
    • Supplier Diversity Program
    • Nixon Peabody International LLC
    • PAL