Guest Post: The European Copyright Firewall? VPNRanks Opinionates That VPNs Like Pure & Express Are in for a Field Day

The EU Copyright Directive passed on 26-3-19 and will now bring in sweeping reforms to existing copyright laws, making them more suitable to match the challenges presented by the complex modern, digital landscape. Based on the new directive, VPNRanks.com suggests that VPN providers who advocate for Internet freedom can benefit from it.

However, this new legislation has run into major controversy as many Internet activists are now saying that the new EU Copyright law will make it increasingly difficult for users to share content on social sites like Facebook and Twitter, among others, without any reprimands.

While the whole legislation has been increasingly controversial, its two parts are the ones that rouse major concerns. Firstly, Article 11, contained in this new document passed today by the EU Parliament, stipulates that publishers will have to be paid by anyone who wishes to share or display any part of their content, like excerpts, if it’s copyrighted.

The other concerning part of the same legislation, Article 13, will prevent unauthorized uses of any copyrighted content. Any site which wishes to upload such content will be directly liable to pay the publishers or creators of the said content, making it harder for these sites to allow easy upload of popular content like memes, GIFs and images, etc.

But apart from the big tech and content owners, the biggest beneficiary of this new law is going to be the VPN industry. Just like how the VPN industry protects users in controversial activities like torrenting, they will extend the same shroud to users looking to bypass these laws in Europe, without harboring the fear of getting hit by financial or legal litigation.

Providers like PureVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark and NordVPN, who prime themselves as protectors of ideals like net neutrality, are highly likely to see users flocking to acquire their subscriptions in the upcoming months as countries in EU pass their own laws from time to time to meet the two-year deadline as required by this legislation’s working framework.

Commenting on the changing internet landscape, Aazim Akhtar, the editor of VPNRanks.com, said, “Net neutrality will always be in danger as long as governments and corporates continue to believe that things should be policed and under their control. The new EU law is an extension of the same ideal, so it’s imperative for users to now start talking about their freedom much more seriously.”

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