The First Rule of Copyright Reform: Don’t Mess With Free Speech and Net Neutrality

... What distinguishes the European copyright reform experience from others and what lessons might be learned for future efforts around the world? One takeaway is that there are presently two kinds of copyright reforms. The first involves a conventional balancing of copyright interests, typically framed as creator rights on the one hand and users’ rights on the other. Ensuring both appropriate compensation and reasonable rights of access and reuse are invariably contentious, but they are largely limited to copyright-related considerations... This stands in marked contrast to the second kind of copyright reform, which uses law to mandate copyright enforcement through regulating technology and digital networks. Those proposals have implications that extend far beyond the copyright balance, sparking concerns related to freedom of expression, privacy, and net neutrality.