Europe’s Proposed New Link Tax Will Enshrine Big Tech’s Stranglehold Over the Internet ⇥ motherboard.vice.com

Cory Doctorow, in an op-ed published by Vice:

On Wednesday, a European Union committee will vote on Article 11, a proposal to create a new copyright over links to news stories. If the proposal is adopted, a service that publishes a link to a story on a news website with a headline or a short snippet would have to get a license before linking. News sites could charge whatever they want for these licenses, and shut down critics by refusing to license to people with whom they disagreed. And the new rule would apply to any service where a link to a news story can appear, including social media platforms, search engines, blogging platforms, and even nonprofits like Wikipedia.

This is a ridiculous proposal that would likely undermine the basics of the web.