Hyperlinking under attack in the EU
Is the new linking legislation going to break the internet? Traditional media are pressuring lawmakers to introduce link censorship laws in the EU.
Is the new linking legislation going to break the internet? Traditional media are pressuring lawmakers to introduce link censorship laws in the EU.
By Sally Broughton Micova
There were no real surprises when European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip and Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Günther H.Oettinger stood on the podium together yesterday [6 May] to launch the EC’s Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy. Draft versions and the evidence file had been leaked and commentators have remarked on a radical overhaul of copyright in the EU, but there seems to have been a slight retreat on the issue of territoriality and geo-blocking for content between the leaked and final versions of the document. A bit more caution is wise because there remain significant deficiencies in the evidence base on the incentives for European content production, and particularly the potential implications for the EU’s many smaller linguistic markets.