The European Parliament has voted to adopt controversial rules on digital copyright in the EU, which have been strenuously opposed by many research organisations, academics and open-internet campaigners.
MEPs adopted the proposals by 348 votes for to 274 against in a full parliament session on 26 March. They rejected the possibility of amending the proposals to remove the most contentious parts by 317 votes to 312.
The European Commission’s vice-president for the digital single market, Andrus Ansip, described the outcome as “a big step ahead”. He acknowledged “lots of fears about what users can do or not”, but said the rules will provide clear guarantees for freedom of speech, teaching and online creativity, and clear rules on computerised analysis of text and data for R&D.
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