These days, the EU discusses they way to deal with copyright in the age of the internet. 

![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUcidv1j8y77xomRUJ5Pb6fAVmahTjQAYE9CRPZmyGJyh/grafik.png)

It shouldn't surprise you too much that the way they try to solve this issue is far away from every day reality in 2018 and would destroy the Internet as we know (and love) it. 
The idea is an upload filter, **every** european online service has to apply in order to avoid legal issues (what would make platforms like **steemit** impossible, if they don't filter the content). Also, linked news articles where information about the header or the first lines of the article get fetched would be connected with financial transactions to the linked page, otherwise the linking would hurt the copyright. 
Not only would this change the way news are being dealt with on the internet today (Article 11), it would also make creative works that include copyrighted material **illegal**. 
With such a law in place, european citicens would have no chance to access **MEMES** and similar content, what in 2018, is a huge part of the internet culture. 

To be exact: 
In order to protect the copyright, each and every online service would need to apply a filter, that scans every uploaded media for possible copyright violations. 
Not only is this idea utter unrealistic, it could also lead to more even worse problems: 
* **constraint** of artists and creators
* restriction of **freedom of speech**
* **surveillance** (if every data is filtered anyways, there would be no need for any more tools if a government wants to gain control over the online activity) 
* filter may be used **not only** to filter copyrighted material, but possibly to filter political opinions
* **huge** risk for startups - with such a filter in place, projects like **YouTube** or **Wikipedia** would not have been possible

![artikel-13-meme.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZjxuCBKjB4f8jxJs8FeQXM81TWM2geJe1MibDHEJEzyR/artikel-13-meme.png)

**What can we do?**
The articles are being discussed on the 20-jun (in 5 days at the time I'm writing this), so we need to act fast. As there is no direct way to vote,  the best way would be to talk to the congressmen and tell them that the society they should be trying to represent does **not** like the idea at all. 
If you don't want to have direct contact to the congressmen, 
* talk to anyone about it (friends, family, pets, ...)
* create **MEMES**
* share the issue online
* just **spread the word**

sources and more information: 
* english: 
  - https://savetheinternet.info/
  - https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/06/06/european-copyright-directive-proposal/
  - https://juliareda.eu/eu-copyright-reform/censorship-machines/
* german: 
  - https://savetheinternet.info/de_DE
  - https://juliareda.eu/2018/05/zensurmaschinen-leistungsschutzrecht-zielgerade/
 
* gofundme campaign for political activism: 
 https://www.gofundme.com/savetheinternetinfo