EU copyright reform is coming. The Commission (=administration/ministry) proposal is scheduled for 21st of September. It will propose more harmonisation (curre

EU copyright reform is coming. The Commission (=administration/ministry) proposal is scheduled for 21st of September. It will propose more harmonisation (currently the EU sets just a basic framework, countries choose what/what not to implement in detail, but the terrible is of course that the more ambitious it tries to be the less likely it will go through. The more national systems will be unpredictably affected, the more likely you'll get a few vetos. So the proposal will significantly update, improve and bring more clarity across borders, but necessarily makes compromises and has to leave enough freedom to not ruin existing working systems. At that point the ball is handed over to the European parliament (~750 members elected from the 28 EU member states) and the council, i.e. the heads of state . That means 1-2 years of negotiations and finally political bargaining between the member states. The big issue is that copyright is only partially harmonised, so after that procedure EU member states have to transpose the EU law into national law. Along all these stages vested interests will be lobbying. Politicians will cut deals. The EU (at least the eurocrats) will try their best to get an ambitious result, but we all know that it's in the end about politics. Political parties and leaders will make the final call. There is no abstract EU making decisions about Europe. There are national governments, national parliaments and nationally elected politicians negotiating and cutting deals. If you want a good copyright framework stop sending incredibly vague petitions. Go and pick up the phone and call an MEP. Go and join a party and make an effort to get into the committee that sets the party line. Go and visit your local politicians' open hours and tell them that you expect them to make their party listen - and offer to provide support. Then you'll make change happen. Stop slacktivism. Start informing yourself (by reading the stuff on 21st September) and then take an honest look to try where you can act.