Article 13 approved by the EU Parliament, what are the implications for STEEM, Steemit Inc and dApps?

There’s been a lot of chatter about article 13, the so-called “artist-redeeming, Facebook/Google punishing, copyright promoting” rule that was proposed. The giants have even fought long and hard against it and used pretty much every trick in the book from propaganda-news to bringing in capitalistic powers to lobby the voters against article 13.

For those of you not familiar with article 13, it’s a point in EUs new directive regarding copyright online which gives social medias greater responsibility for user-uploaded content. Some of the concerns has been mainly revolving around the fact that social networks now has to develop technology for recognizing content uploaded and automatically check whether copyright is infringed upon or not, and filter out the irrelevant.

How should this be done, technically?

For instance, let’s say it’s an image uploaded on @deegramofficial , well then we could just apply a module which automatically checks the hash (digital representation of the object) against known databases where artists/creators can post their images, and if it exists there then deny it. But what about every other place on the internet this picture could have been posted before? Facebook, Instagram, etc?

Another example, what if it’s textual? If I quote someone else, would my content then need to be taken down? Where does the line go between repeating a sentence that’s been said before and outright stealing of copyrighted content? How high of a percentage of the text can be “stolen” before it’s considered an infringement?

These are some of many practical concerns I believe the EU Parliament has not taken in consideration.

I need to state however, that I completely agree with their reasoning for the new directive, but how they are implementing it is the issue. As the goal is to empower the rights of creators, it definitely aligns with the vision of STEEM.

For STEEM, the implications could be major, as it’s a censor free platform where the EU basically has no way to intervene. It might even drive up the price a lot as people will need a new place to go if they ditch the giants (as the giants may even have to either pull out of countries or enforce some kind of regime which makes people flee), which in turn can be beneficial for Steemit and dApps.

But what about Steemit, Deegram and the rest? We’d basically be held accountable for all content posted to our respective platforms, and that none of it infringes on any copyright (either intentionally or not).

I don’t have the answers here, I’m just sharing my concerns and some reflections on both the technical and regulatory issues that probably will arise from this.

What are your thoughts, people? Should we be afraid or happy?

Source of image and information: https://e24.no/digital/eu/nye-internettregler-godkjent-i-eu-parlamentet/24589792 (Norwegian) https://www.deegram.com/