On March 26, the European Union adopted a reform of copyright law, including the controversial Article 13. The CEO of the streaming platform Twitch is concerned about this. He thinks the reform is poorly crafted and completely unclear.
Who is speaking? It is the CEO of Twitch, Emmet Shear, in an interview with Fortune.
It concerns the EU copyright reform, which will affect many platforms, including Twitch, starting in 2021.
What is Article 13? Article 13 is now called Article 17 in the adopted reform.
This is about ensuring that platform operators regulate the handling of copyrighted content on their platform.
Platform operators are liable for violations by their users.
Critics fear that large platform operators like Twitch would respond with “upload filters” that ban and sort out anything that could violate copyright. These filters could be set so “strictly” that almost everything gets deleted. Some paint a horror scenario of a “censored internet.”
Completely unclear what Twitch needs to do now
This is what Shear says:
The reform that has been adopted is quite poorly crafted, I think. It is completely unclear what we need to do to comply or what not.
Shear continues to say that he wants to ensure that streamers are not unjustly blocked, for example due to legally protected music playing in the background:
“We will lobby to ensure that the law allows using things under “fair use” in order to experiment and try new things,” says Shear.
Reform not designed for YouTube, Twitch, Reddit
This need is what Shear sees in the reform: Shear knows that there is a need to protect content creators. But it needs to be done right:
- Some actually steal original content purely out of profit greed
- But there are also companies like Twitch, YouTube, and Reddit that legally use copyrighted material.
Shear says:
“There is a problem with content piracy, but this new law is not made for us.”
Especially gaming companies rely on companies like Twitch. Electronic Arts relied on Twitch when it came to marketing the new game Apex Legends.
This is what Shear wishes: According to Shear, the legislation needs to ensure:
- that content pirates are punished for stealing others’ work
- but at the same time, tech companies like Twitch must be able to create video content that reuses copyrighted material within certain limits
Already in December 2018, Shear had written a letter to streamers, drawing their attention to Article 13. He saw it as a danger for streamers to express themselves and earn a living with Twitch.
