…the European Copyright Directive
More specifically, Article 13.

What is it and why should Scratch care?
It's a controversial proposed amendment of European copyright law that will force online platforms to check and censor content as it's uploaded for copyright violations - which basically means Scratch will have to install buggy automated filters that can't distinguish between actual copyright violations and fair use. The infrastructure required is apparently quite complicated. Many people have spoken out against the law, including Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia) and Tim Berners-Lee (founder of the World Wide Web).

But our servers are in the US, so we're safe, right?
Maybe. But we do serve users in the EU, so we might not be. I'm not a lawyer. But we should definitely look into it anyway.

Has it passed yet?
No, but it passed the Legal Affairs Committee in a June 20th vote. Still needs approval from the wider parliament.

Wow, that summary was woefully inadequate. Where can I find more info?
Google ‘article 13’ or ‘european copyright directive’ and you will find many, many articles with news and analysis.

Has the ST done anything about this, or released some sort of official position?

Wow okay

Haven’t seen the Scratch Team do anything about this, but they’ll get it sorted out
Europe just hates everyone online don’t they

Wahsp wrote:

Europe just hates everyone online don’t they

Well, not entirely. GDPR was actually pretty good for the people who use the internet as it means sites have to actually declare everything they're keeping on you rather than keeping it tucked away where you can't find it, and the new copyright laws do kind of have good intentions even if the execution is horrendous.

I think we'll have to wait and see if it's likely to go through at the moment- there's no point rushing to find a solution if it isn't going to actually happen.

Keep in mind there is a small chance of this actually happening - they passed GDPR, a good law (although as it wasn't explained well it was a scare for multiple users online until it actually happened), which protects the user. If they know how to pass laws like that, they won't pass this one.
If this doesn't get passed, everything will be normal.
If it gets passed but Scratch is protected for fair use by it's .edu domain, everything will be normal.
If it gets passed and Scratch has no rights, it will completely change Scratch and could possibly have to close down due to Scratch's main remix mechanic.
Think about it. Do you think they would pass something that would cause this amount of damage?

Wahsp wrote:

Wow okay

Haven’t seen the Scratch Team do anything about this, but they’ll get it sorted out
Europe just hates everyone online don’t they

*European Union (EU)
Europe is a continent. The EU is a union.
For example, in 2019 Britain will still be in Europe (what would they do, drag the country using a boat? ), but it will leave the EU.
Just to clear things up

dude341 wrote:

Wahsp wrote:

Wow okay

Haven’t seen the Scratch Team do anything about this, but they’ll get it sorted out
Europe just hates everyone online don’t they

*European Union (EU)
Europe is a continent. The EU is a union.
For example, in 2019 Britain will still be in Europe (what would they do, drag the country using a boat? ), but it will leave the EU.
Just to clear things up

Yes I understand that

I was trying to be funny

Wahsp wrote:

dude341 wrote:

Wahsp wrote:

Wow okay

Haven’t seen the Scratch Team do anything about this, but they’ll get it sorted out
Europe just hates everyone online don’t they

*European Union (EU)
Europe is a continent. The EU is a union.
For example, in 2019 Britain will still be in Europe (what would they do, drag the country using a boat? ), but it will leave the EU.
Just to clear things up

Yes I understand that

I was trying to be funny

Yes clearly I understand that too


Changing EU to Europe does not change the level of humour

dude341 wrote:

Keep in mind there is a small chance of this actually happening - they passed GDPR, a good law (although as it wasn't explained well it was a scare for multiple users online until it actually happened), which protects the user. If they know how to pass laws like that, they won't pass this one.
If this doesn't get passed, everything will be normal.
If it gets passed but Scratch is protected for fair use by it's .edu domain, everything will be normal.
If it gets passed and Scratch has no rights, it will completely change Scratch and could possibly have to close down due to Scratch's main remix mechanic.
Think about it. Do you think they would pass something that would cause this amount of damage?

1. My understanding is that it stands a pretty good chance of passing (just because a parliament passes a ‘good’ law doesn't mean they can't pass a ‘bad’ one). The EU parliament votes July 4 on whether to approve it - if no, there's two months where it can be further debated (including some possible amendments). The parliament then votes again at the September plenary meeting. However, it is starting to get more media attention, so maybe that will change some minds. But we can't really afford to gamble on its success or failure.

2. One of the BIG problems with the proposal is that it makes no allowance for fair use, which is why it's so bad for Scratch.

3. It's not the remix mechanic that will be affected (as projects are released under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 licence, not copyrighted as such), but the uploading and sharing of copyrighted content (songs by popular artists, art from movies or TV shows etc.)

And I thought Roblox was unfair.

Good thing I live in either America or China

dude341 wrote:

Wahsp wrote:

Wow okay

Haven’t seen the Scratch Team do anything about this, but they’ll get it sorted out
Europe just hates everyone online don’t they

*European Union (EU)
Europe is a continent. The EU is a union.
For example, in 2019 Britain will still be in Europe (what would they do, drag the country using a boat? ), but it will leave the EU.
Just to clear things up

And Norway is in Europe, but not the EU!

PrincessPanda_test_ wrote:

And I thought Roblox was unfair.

Good thing I live in either America or China

Doesn't matter. It's worldwide.

cul8er wrote:

dude341 wrote:

Keep in mind there is a small chance of this actually happening - they passed GDPR, a good law (although as it wasn't explained well it was a scare for multiple users online until it actually happened), which protects the user. If they know how to pass laws like that, they won't pass this one.
If this doesn't get passed, everything will be normal.
If it gets passed but Scratch is protected for fair use by it's .edu domain, everything will be normal.
If it gets passed and Scratch has no rights, it will completely change Scratch and could possibly have to close down due to Scratch's main remix mechanic.
Think about it. Do you think they would pass something that would cause this amount of damage?

1. My understanding is that it stands a pretty good chance of passing (just because a parliament passes a ‘good’ law doesn't mean they can't pass a ‘bad’ one). The EU parliament votes July 4 on whether to approve it - if no, there's two months where it can be further debated (including some possible amendments). The parliament then votes again at the September plenary meeting. However, it is starting to get more media attention, so maybe that will change some minds. But we can't really afford to gamble on its success or failure.

2. One of the BIG problems with the proposal is that it makes no allowance for fair use, which is why it's so bad for Scratch.

3. It's not the remix mechanic that will be affected (as projects are released under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 licence, not copyrighted as such), but the uploading and sharing of copyrighted content (songs by popular artists, art from movies or TV shows etc.)

1. Source that it has a good chance of passing?
2. I agree.
3. Both will be affected.

wait

(4a) ‘online content sharing service provider’ means a provider of an information society service one of the main purposes of which is to store and give access to the public to copyright protected works or other protected subject-matter uploaded by its users, which the service optimises.

Services acting in a non-commercial purpose capacity such as online encyclopaedia, and providers of online services where the content is uploaded with the authorisation of all concerned rightholders, such as educational or scientific repositories, should not be considered online content sharing service providers within the meaning of this Directive.

Providers of cloud services for individual use which do not provide direct access to the public, open source software developing platforms, and online market places whose main activity is online retail of physical goods, should not be considered online content sharing service providers within the meaning of this Directive.

but

It is therefore not even certain that a donation-based community project like Wikipedia would be excluded from the obligation to filter. Aside from this exemption for entirely non-commercial platforms, there is no limit to a particular business model of platform. -Julia Reda

KJRYoshi07 wrote:

dude341 wrote:

Wahsp wrote:

Wow okay

Haven’t seen the Scratch Team do anything about this, but they’ll get it sorted out
Europe just hates everyone online don’t they

*European Union (EU)
Europe is a continent. The EU is a union.
For example, in 2019 Britain will still be in Europe (what would they do, drag the country using a boat? ), but it will leave the EU.
Just to clear things up

And Norway is in Europe, but not the EU!

And Switzerland!

FloatingMuffins wrote:

KJRYoshi07 wrote:

dude341 wrote:

Wahsp wrote:

Wow okay

Haven’t seen the Scratch Team do anything about this, but they’ll get it sorted out
Europe just hates everyone online don’t they

*European Union (EU)
Europe is a continent. The EU is a union.
For example, in 2019 Britain will still be in Europe (what would they do, drag the country using a boat? ), but it will leave the EU.
Just to clear things up

And Norway is in Europe, but not the EU!

And Switzerland!

And they still trade with Europe <\brexit>

dude341 wrote:

1. Source that it has a good chance of passing?
2. I agree.
3. Both will be affected.

1. The fact that the proposal has made it this far.

cul8er wrote:

dude341 wrote:

1. Source that it has a good chance of passing?
2. I agree.
3. Both will be affected.

1. The fact that the proposal has made it this far.

They are different people.

I doubt it will pass.

Great news: it didn't pass! Yay!
We need to celebrate this.

dude341 wrote:

Great news: it didn't pass! Yay!
We need to celebrate this.

Phew, still good.

dude341 wrote:

Great news: it didn't pass! Yay!
We need to celebrate this.

It has been scheduled for further parliamentary discussion and debate in September. It's a good start, but it's not an end.