In reply to Stephen Brown’s disappointment that MEPs voted against the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market earlier this month, can I say that I have total sympathy for the plight faced by him and other musicians in the pittance they receive for their downloaded compositions.

But, sadly, this directive would not have solved many of the issues that it set out to. Rather, it would have played into the hands of the digital giants – because only they have the resources that were needed to ensure compliance.

Further, there was a substantial risk that legal free speech would be inadvertently blocked by computer monitoring systems and many people from academics to meme creators feared the directive could destroy the vibrancy of the modern internet and censor online free speech.

Now that MEPs have rejected rubber-stamping the proposals, it means the European Parliament has another few months to get it right before going forward for a full debate in September.

Hopefully, unless the eurocrats manage to mess it up again – we’ll have fair and workable proposals and musicians like Mr Brown will be properly rewarded for the fruits of their labour.

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