Guardian: EU copyright law may force tech giants to pay billions to publishers

Music companies, film-makers and media publishers could be in line for billions in payouts after EU lawmakers voted to accept controversial changes to copyright rules that aim to make tech companies including Facebook and Google share more of their revenue, Guardian reports.

Article 11, which critics have dubbed a “link tax”, would force news aggregation and search sites to pay publishers for showing news snippets or linking to news stories on other sites.

Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee is among 70 internet luminaries to oppose the law, arguing it would be transform the internet from an open platform into a tool for “automated surveillance and control”.