Poland files complaint with EU's top court over copyright rule change

[May 24, 2019]  WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland has submitted a complaint to the European Union's top court against copyright rules adopted by the bloc in April to protect Europe's creative industries, which Warsaw says may result in preventive censorship.

Google will have to pay publishers for news snippets and Facebook filter out protected content under copyright rules aimed at ensuring fair compensation for the EU's $1 trillion creative industries.

Poland has said the overhaul was a step backwards, arguing that the filter requirement could lay the foundation for censorship.

"This system may result in adopting regulations that are analogous to preventive censorship, which is forbidden not only in the Polish constitution but also in the EU treaties," Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski told public broadcaster TVP Info.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by David Goodman)

[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.