13 June 2016 — Open Media
Time is really running out to save the link: If you haven’t already can you share our petition with as many people as possible on Facebook and Twitter before the final deadline 48 hours from now?
There’s only 48 hours left to tell the European Commission not to make link tax laws!
What is happening now?
There is one last consultation on proposals for an EU-wide link tax before the Commission starts writing their draft law.1
These proposals suggest making copyright laws apply to hyperlinks – going as far as suggesting all publishers should have the ability to charge fees to website owners for all the links shared.2
This is is our best chance to make sure that the link tax never enters that document at all. The consultation closes on the 15th June: that’s only 48 hours away.
Can you share our campaign on Facebook and Twitter to make sure as many people as possible take action?
The Commission has already heard from the lobbyists and the publishers industry reps and from politicians from across the party spectrum. But they need to hear from Internet users like you.
The last few weeks have been huge for our Save the Link campaign! Here’s a quick recap on how our pressure is already making a difference:
- We went to Strasbourg to deliver the voices of over 10,000 people to top MEPs in response to the broad consultation the Commission ran on rules governing websites.3
- The Commission released their official response to this consultation: devoting several pages to your comments. Thanks to you, the Commission admitted that their link tax is unpopular and undemocratic.4 That’s a really powerful achievement.
- And to make sure we have a huge impact we’re written detailed answers to the full consultation which we’ve shared with publishers, search engines and journalists to help them reply and we’ll be sharing it with the UK Government and the EU Commission.5
The Commission also released a further wave of plans hidden amongst them we saw the same old idea: looking for a way to charge for sharing content, and simply making links available. It’s an even stronger reason to make sure that we continue to show up in force to save the link.
Now we need to drive it home: we only have two days left to tell the commission not to make link tax laws.
Can you help put the idea of extra copyright on links to rest by sharing our campaign on Facebook and Twitter before the final deadline?
Best wishes,
Ruth
PS: Lots of people use social media to share stories and learn about issues that affect them – but there are also many who are not on Facebook and Twitter! If you can, consider forwarding this email to five friends who might not see it on social media. It will make all the difference!
Footnotes
We want you to be as informed as possible about the situation, so please check out the links below (We do love those links!)
[1] What the heck is ancillary copyright anyway and why do we call it a link tax? Source: OpenMedia
[2] How additional rights for publishers will hurt education and access to culture. Source: Communia
[3] Delivering your voices at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Source: OpenMedia
[4] Full report on the results of the public consultation on the Regulatory environment for Platforms, Online Intermediaries and the Collaborative Economy. Source: European Commission
[5] EU Public consultation on the role of publishers in the copyright value chain. Source: NewsNow
For more information, we always update the latest info on Save the Link here!
The New Dark Age 