When the EU's legislative committee voted last month to advance a bizarre copyright proposal that would mandate mass commercial surveillance and censorship of the internet, it was the beginning of the fight, not the end.
The next stop is a vote of the European Parliament itself, likely on July 5. From there, there's a twisty maze of little corridors the proposal can move down, not all quite alike.
EFF's Danny O'Brien and Pirate MEP Julia Reda explain in this video, which O'Brien has annotated for the curious. Here's where to go to tell your MEP that this matters to you.
The first of these happens next week. Generally, the text agreed by the JURI committee would immediately become the basis of a "Trilogue" negotiation between the Parliament, the European Commission (the EU's executive) and the European Council (representatives of its member states). What comes out of that negotiation becomes EU law — and with the JURI vote, all three groups have agreed to include copyright filters and link taxes in the final directive.However, given the controversy over the directive's contents, we expect some MEPs will invoke "Rule 69(c)" next week. That would lead to a vote of the full Parliament on the JURI text as a negotiating mandate, probably on July 5th.
As Julia Reda, the Pirate Party MEP explains in the interview below, with enough noise, it may well be possible to get a majority of the Parliament to oppose the JURI decision. That would re-open the directive's text, and allow ordinary MEPs to vote on amendments. Even if we don't get a majority then, it'll will be important groundwork for the next, highly unusual step: another plenary vote for on the negotiated directive some time later this year.
The Crucial Next Few Days In the EU's Copyright Filter and Link Tax Battle
[Danny O'Brien/EFF]
