CAD Jewellery Skills Blog is now back, but it may not be for long unless we stop Article 13
After a prolonged absence, I’m pleased to say regular postings to the CAD Jewellery Skills blog are now up and running again. However, if the European Copyright Directive Article 13 passes, this may not be for long.
For those who do not know, Article 13 is part of the EU’s Copyright and the Digital Single Market Directive. Article 13 is a radical Internet intellectual property law reform designed to appease the music industry in the name of cracking down on Big Tech for what they perceived to be “excessive copyright infringements”. In particular, the authors of the law have made it clear they’ve set their sites on Youtube.
In practice, what this means is that if this law passes with Article 13 included, nobody on the internet (Youtube or anyone else) will be able to link to or cite anyone else’s content without direct consent (and royalties) paid to the content’s owner. This would effectively strangle internet navigation as we know it, leaving only the largest content providers able to afford the kinds of knowledge sharing we are used to seeing on the internet as we know it now.
At CADJewellerySkills, I have always provided my information as a free resource to the entire jewellery community, in an effort to help students and newcomers to find their feet. Having to deal with aggressive royalties and content filtering would crush this blog out of existence.
I am not alone in my fears over this. Large portions of the European blogosphere have been protesting. Indeed, this has sparked some of the largest protests the EU has ever seen have seen.
If you wish the exchange of information on the internet to remain free, I would urge you all to sign the petition.
The vote for this law is on the 27 March, so time is of the essence.
Jack Meyer
Bespoke jewellery designer, and specialist in jewellery CAD/CAM and emergent technologies that affect jewellery.
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Amazing, Now we will receive informative blogs on this site.