No resistance in France

There’s one curious thing I relized these last weeks: In France, there seems to be hardly any discussion at all about the problems that the European Copyright Directive will bring with it. It’s best known for its notorious article 13 which implicitly would require most sites with user uploads to implement content filters, shut down or risk persecution for their users’ wrongdoings. Articles 11 and 12 seem to be similarly bad, yet most reactions focus on article 13, which by the way also demands for platforms to make “best efforts to obtain an authorisation”, i. e. a license, without explaining how to do so if you have no idea whose works might be uploaded tomorrow.

In short: The internet as we know it will probably cease to exist.

It seems like not a single demonstration against the directive has been planned here in France, at least according to one map. One of the few search results on the subject confirm that “Rien n’est prévu actuellement en France et en Belgique.”, so nothing is planned in France or Belgium.

Now I really wonder why that is. It’s not like the French were known for their “always follow the orders” mentality. In fact, the clichés of France an Germany seem quite inverted, although - looking at most other European countries - this seems to be mostly due to the Germans standing up. Of course France has been quite busy protesting since November 2018, so this might be one reason.

Maybe the media companies are more intent and / or successful in hushing up the directive? (German has the more concise expression “totschweigen” for this, which literally means “to silence to death”, silence being a verb here.)

I really don’t know. Fourteen months in France have not taught me enough to understand the French in this subject.