Artists want to be paid their dues, but digital defenders fear online censorship under the new EU copyright directive currently being put to MEPs. A decisive vote on the next steps towards becoming law is expected this week.
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"Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your rights," has become the rallying cry that the artists have brought to the European Parliament over copyright reform.
Singers, cartoonists, photographers are all battling it out with digital platforms: they demand to be paid their dues when their creations are used.
When asked whether the new EU directive would impose censorship online, Irish folk singer Eleanor McEvoy replies:
"The last thing is censorship" I am an artist Do you think I am in favor of censorship Do you think any of the people in there are in favor of censorship? Censorship is the antithesis of what we are about, it is not in our DNA, we are about to freedom of expression and selfexpression, nothing will be censored, we want it, we still want to be paid a little bit of money for it . "
The controversy revolves around Article 13 since it requires digital platforms to filter all contents uploaded on their sites
But that creates a problem for users.
"There are platforms like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, they already have filters in place, but this law will normalize those filters. And this is not good for consumers because the experience they already have with the existent filters is not a good one, because what they see is that they try to upload something on Instragram for example, if there is copyright content they will not be able to do it," remarks Agustín Reyna, Competition Adviser at the BEUC, the European Consumer Organization.
MEPs remain deeply divided on the issue, and a meeting scheduled for tonight (July 3 2018) is expected to decide whether the whole chamber gets a say on the matter.