Datawrapper joins protest against Article 11 and 13 of the EU Copyright Directive
Datawrapper has joined the protest against the planned reform of the EU Copyright Directive. We signed an open letter against the reform which was sent out to every Member of the European Parliament on Monday.
The proposed legislation, which the Parliament of the European Union is voting on on March 27, could significantly affect the internet and all “content sharing service providers” — including Datawrapper.
Most notably, Article 13 states that
online content sharing service providers shall be liable for unauthorized acts of communication to the public of copyright protected works and other subject matter
It is unclear how this would affect Datawrapper. Since databases in the EU can fall under the protection of copyright1, this could mean that we need to “make best efforts” to check all datasets uploaded to Datawrapper against potential copyright claims.
With thousands of datasets uploaded to Datawrapper every day, it goes without saying that this task would be nearly impossible for us to achieve, and it would severely reduce exchange of data for information purposes, for everyone.
If you live in the EU, please join us in the protest by contacting your representative in the EU Parliament and urge them to vote against the reform.
