EU approved new copyright law

The European Commission approved the new copyright legislation, passed by the European Parliament last month, that will make online platforms liable for copyright infringement on their sites and force Google, Facebook to pay publishers for news snippets they post online. Nineteen countries representing a majority of the European Union population, including France and Germany, endorsed the overhaul, but several, including Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden voted against the legislation. Under the new rules, Google and other online platforms will have to sign licensing agreements with musicians, performers, authors, news publishers and journalists to use their work online. While the legislation does not explicitly state so, it is widely assumed that to conform with the law, online platforms will have to install filters to prevent users from uploading copyrighted material. Opponents say this is technically impossible and will lead to widespread censorship. The new Copyright Directive now goes to European countries' individual parliaments, which have two years to write it into their national laws. Mashable...