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Malta’s Most Famous Youtuber Accuses PN MEP Of Threatening Free Internet With His Vote

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Malta’s biggest Youtuber, Grandayy, has called out PN MEP Francis Zammit Dimech as ‘hypocritical’ following his crucial vote in favour of Article 13. The approved legislation concerns a copyright law that will force internet users to pay a fee every time they share a meme or share a website link. It will also force websites like Facebook to install new filters that will flag user-created content.

“Pretty much all internet-focused organisations, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have opposed this law,” Grandayy told Lovin Malta. “Yet, the Legal Affairs Committee has successfully voted for it. Sadly the only Maltese MEP on this committee, Francis Zammit Dimech, also voted in favour, just a day after boasting about helping Maltese Youtubers monetise their videos. Which is hypocritical considering that this law will only hurt all Maltese Youtube creators.”

Grandayy, who has over 1 million combined subscribers on Youtube said that virtually all internet users will be affected by the Copyright Directive if it passes: “As a meme creator myself, this will definitely affect me as well, although not too drastically as Youtube already has an automated system in place which I already have to deal with. But I just would like to see the internet remain open and free like it currently is for the most part.”

“The new law will basically encourage or even force all websites that allow users to upload content on them (ie pretty much all social media websites) to install automated filters that scan all content uploaded, and block or censor any detected copyrighted content. Since bots cannot distinguish fair use and parody from actual copyright infringement this can mean that memes and other transformative content will be blocked from the internet, restricting everyone’s freedom of expression,” he said.

With the first vote secured, Article 13 will now pass to the European Parliament for a vote. The vote is likely to happen in early July.

One of Grandayy’s more popular videos, with over 12 million views

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“This legislation is a means to address the value gap that is currently working against creators” – Francis Zammit Dimech

Speaking to Lovin Malta, MEP Francis Zammit Dimech, who voted in favour of the Copyright Directive while part of the JURI Committee, said the new legislation was aimed at protecting creators and artists who were not receiving the compensation they deserved for their work.

“This legislation is a form of extending copyright protections to the internet. This legislation is a means to address the value gap, which obviously at the moment is working against creators – they create work and are not compensated when their work is made use of on various platforms, so we would like to see a system that is able to recognise this. I’ve received multiple calls from people from the artistic community who encouraged me to vote in favour of the article,” he said.

When asked if he was worried it might lead to self-censorship or users becoming more cautious about uploading content, he said that the legislation needs to be “reasonable and appropriate”.

“Of course we want to be be very careful and, for example, we said that we must exclude anyone placing work online for scientific or research purposes,” he said. “We need to protect creators otherwise we would be stultifying the whole process.”

He compared the internet legislation to how royalties and licensing works in the radio industry, with Maltese organisations paying a fee to PRS in exchange for using original music.

“It’s the same process – automatically you need some form of recognition. Imagine you are an author and you produce a book and someone copies it one thousand times online… your work is simply placed online and you never receive any payment for it,” he said.

In regards to the “link tax” that would force news outlets and other aggregate websites to pay for linking to a website, he said that “we are not talking of censoring the links, but monitoring them, to provide the compensation”.

“And as far as the fee goes, it depends in the number of hits and users, it is very difficult to quantify on a simple basis, but the principle is that the agreement needs to be based on the principle that they are fair and proportionate – we don’t want to create a system that is prohibitive to users,” he said.

“I am against self-censorship of course – and I welcome a dialogue, this first vote is only the commencement of this legislation, it will lead to a dialogue with the European Council and if there is wording we need to change then we can discuss it,” he said.

“And I hope the wording will be clear enough that we won’t have any self-censoring – but it is only fair that when we make use of copyrighted material that the creator’s right is respected – otherwise why would creators create work?”

What do you think of Article 13?

READ NEXT: New Maltese YouTube Portal Means You Can Now Get Paid For Uploading Videos

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Johnathan is an award-winning Maltese journalist interested in social justice, politics, minority issues, music and food. Follow him at @supreofficialmt on Instagram, and send him news, food and music stories at [email protected]

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