The EU passed a copyright law today that makes platforms responsible for filtering and removing copyrighted material which is obviously bad news for the large platforms who are nearly entirely made up of this kind of content in one way or another. You can read more about some of the details and possible effects [here](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-article-13-article-11-european-directive-on-copyright-explained-meme-ban) at a wired.com article. 

https://i.imgur.com/fjgxNKf.jpg

### What does this mean for Steem though? 

Firstly, let's have a look at the legislation loopholes that @markkujantunen pointed out the other day in [his article](https://steemit.com/copyright/@markkujantunen/how-will-article-13-of-eu-copyright-law-affect-steem) on the topic. The exemptions he cited were:

1) existed less than three years, 
2) have an annual turnover of less than €10 million, and 
3) have less than 5 million unique monthly visitors. 

And as he rightly expressed, that is *every Steem platform* including Steemit.com itself. Although, Steem just crossed the 3 year point, there are definitely fewer than 5 million unique users (even with all the alts) as there are about 1,2 million and, the platform itself makes zero income. *Zero.* At least for now. At some point however it will start generating more revenue as it is going to a paid advertising model but I think it will be a little while before it is reaping anywhere close to 10 million worth.

### Who owns us - Nobody or Everyone?

The next thing is that while Steemit is an interface like Busy, Steeve.app and Partiko - Who owns the blockchain? Umm... we do? The thing on Steem is that once it started and the witnesses began witnessing, the ownership of the Steem platform was released into the wild and as long as there is one witness, it will live. It is the people here who are the owners and it is they who power and create for it. There is no government or board of directors and the distributed nature of the users means that there is no way to wrangle them all. 

Now, what does this mean for content? Who knows but when it comes to the internet and legislation, the governments continually dare people to innovate their rules into obsolescence - and time and time again, that is just what happens. While the centralized platforms are going to be forced to comply because essentially they are brick and mortar businesses, the decentralized networks are going to flourish and multiple like a virus. 

The changes in laws and the filtering requirements is going to exacerbate the already tenuous situation with banning, demonetization and shadow banning on the centralized platforms and will put contributors in a more precarious position than ever before. They are going to be *forced* by these types of legislation changes to find new ways to express themselves and of course, *earn.*

### The influx of digital refugees

Steem is a likely contender to start taking in digital refugees who have been forced out by the authoritarian governments of the laws and platforms that once welcomed them in to build the cities. And, as long as Steem can scale, there will be plenty of houses available for them to find a new home in a new city that welcomes their kind, creators, earners - people. 

These types of changes in legislation are what is going to not only bring Steem into the sphere of global attention, but force it to develop and decentralize at an increasing rate. While content creators are one thing though, there is much more to it than that as developers and consumers are going to come in too as they are going to find less opportunity and less content to serve their tastes on the other platforms while the decentralized communities flourish and grow in strength.

What this means is that even the advertisers are going to start wanting in heavily as they rely on attention and eyes on their content which means, they have to be where people are consuming. While Steemit might be a catch all, many other interfaces are going to develop that are much more niche content orientated that will keep them small enough to fly under some of the legislative radars but large enough to be compelling and sticky for users. 

### Don't just Hodl, Pown.

While this is not going to be an easy changeover an there are going to be lots of hurdles, what all of these draconian measures will lead to is a revolution of thought process by the average users that makes them rethink just what the internet is and more importantly, what it could be. The process will lead to the realization that decentralization and personal ownership is the way to go as well ramp up the tokenization of the online world massively.

Like I have said [before](https://steemit.com/thoughts/@tarazkp/what-is-yours), ownership is a very important concept and everyone who *owns Steem* is a a facilitator of the new world of personal finance and banking. This will raise more and more questions into other areas including tax, governance and especially, just what the banks are getting up to with their middleman ways. 

As I see it, these law changes have to happen in order for people to suffer enough to look for alternative methods and, Steem *is* an alternative method that is going to start collecting masses of value and traction the more oppressive the legislation becomes. 

### For Steem

One of the factors that needs to be taken care of and *is being* taken care of is the continual decentralization of both the governance structure and the resources in the system as the more hands that hold the reins and hold the coins, the smaller the targets become. This is happening through the reduction in costs to process transactions for witnesses through the increased efficiency of the chain, this is happening with the separation of the wallet, it is happening with the increase in applications, through the people buying in and of course, all the people who do actually create original content too. One day, that original content could be worth a lot more than it is now, *especially* since there are ways to use it *and* get paid for it no matter where it appears. 

You see something going on here with copyright? When it comes to tracking it, blockchain is the only technology that can and a user could essentially take micro-payments wherever it appears on the internet but, they have to be able to weave a blockchain and a currency through it and for the most part, the centralized platforms are not equipped for this kind of change and, their users definitely aren't. 

### The conversation continues

While some people are angry at the changes in legislation, these things are necessary to further the discussion rather than keep accepting an oppressive status quo. This is going to increase the awareness of all the alternatives that are springing up that empower users rather than milk them from their cages and while there is a great deal of uncertainty in the process of it all, there is an enormous amount of opportunity. 

That is the point of all of this; the responsibility to take opportunity into our own hands. There are so many streams of thought, technology and legislation that are converging on the same points of the future and that is, decentralization, tokenization and humanization of the internet. 

*Ready?*

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]