The European Union’s legislative affairs committee has voted to include two potentially disastrous proposals in upcoming copyright reforms. Article 11 would prohibit linking to news stories without permission and a paid license, and Article 13 would mandate that all material posted by Europeans must first be evaluated by a copyright filter and blocked if it appeared to match a copyrighted work. Although these proposals aren’t yet law, Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow worries they will pass with the upcoming copyright legislation unless Internet users in Europe can sway their lawmakers. Both articles would radically change how the Internet is used, and although they would technically apply only to Europeans, much like the GDPR, the end result could affect users worldwide (see “Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation Makes Privacy Global,” 2 May 2018).

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