More controversies about copyright tricks from big media and big tech to discourage small creators

Here are two more major op-eds by Electronic Frontier Foundation on, loosely speaking, the desire for large media outlets to discourage smaller companies and individuals with less overhead from competing with them.

In Europe (where I have frankly lost track of the gradual implementation of the EU Copyright Directive since 2018) we are seeing telecom providers wanting to be paid by content creators to carry their content (that sounds like a version of the network neutrality debate in the United States). Conversely we are seeing efforts (like in Australia) by large media publishers wanting Facebook and Google to pay them to carry their content. Konstantinos Komaitis explains in a March 10, 2022 op-ed 'Big Tech Pay-Outs to European ISPs Would Just Concentrate Their Power', link.

On March 21, Corynne McSherry wrote 'The New Filter Mandate Bill Is An Unmitigated Disaster' (link), criticizing the SMART Copyright Act (Sen. Thom Tillis text), which is something like a weak reincarnation of SOPA from a decade ago. The bill would enable the Copyright Office to prescribe inflexible standards for filters, especially for music, when we all know these filters don't work very well outside of context. I, for one, generally won't make any video now for upload if background music is playing, which is often the case at political demonstrations and protests. (There might be exceptions, like national anthems that are in public domain.)

McSherry calls the CASE Act 'unconstitutional' (maybe on due process grounds), and the Copyright Office still says 'Spring 2022' for being ready to take complaints, with June 25, 2022 as their drop-dead date.

We still see a lot of pressure in the system trying to discourage smaller creators from creating more low-cost content to the bigger players who do it for shareholders, just as we see activists (particularly on the Left) as seeing independent creators impediments to getting more solidarity within their 'oppressed' intersectional groups, because independent creators feel ashamed of viewing themselves as victims.

(Note: The CCB opened under the CASE Act on June 16, 2022.)

(Posted: Wednesday, March 30, 2022 at 3:30 PM EDT by John W. Boushka)