Brace yourselves, meme ban is coming (?) - En undersökning av det nya copyrightdirektivet i ljuset av yttrandefriheten

Sammanfattning: Ever since the rise of the internet, the copyright legislation has been forced to modernize to be able to cope with situations where copyright protected materials are spread across the internet in new ways and in a greater magnitude than before. Through file sharing, streaming and sharing of material via social media platforms protected work can easily be spread to large groups. As part of the effort for modernization in the field of copyright, a new EU-directive has been adopted. The directive is called Copyright in the digital single market 2016/0280(COD) and is also known as the Copyright Directive. The directive has been getting a lot of attention online and has both been praised and criticized. One of the most discussed regulations is article 17, which critics argue is a restriction of the freedom of speech and prohibition of internet phenomenons such as memes. The criticism of the Copyright Directive serves as an analysis point for what article 17 could mean in relation to freedom of speech, which is guaranteed in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, article 11. This has mainly been done from a critical point of view through an EU-judicial method. The starting point for the analysis has been a judgment of proportionality, where the copyright and the freedom of speech have been put against each other in the light of the copyright directive.