Article 13

"*Now what is Article 13 and what does it do? I don't know. I dunno.*"
―Erik
Article 13 is the 87th lesson of Internet Comment Etiquette. It was released on September 30, 2018.

## Summary

Erik warns his students about Article 13, a proposed copyright law in the European Union. He decides to get his news from people freaking out on Twitter. He concludes from this that it's a ban on memes. He tweets "Article 13" to start an argument, but everyone sees through it and knows it's just bait.

Erik decides not to read Article 13 because it's boring and just has a strange news video that explains it to him. It's about European legislation so there isn't that much anger in the comments. Erik leaves a comment warning the Europeans not to take America's memes.

Erik plugs NordVPN and explains that it can help you get around Article 13 and also watch a trailer for Nobbleberry.

Next, Erik listens to an actual explanation of Article 13 while he plays Second Life as a giant Hillary Clinton head. He thanks the creator of the video but threatens him to cease your investigations. Then he goes over to extremist news site Breitbart and even they dislike Article 13, although most of the comments are just explaining why Hitler wasn't so bad. Erik makes the Facebook account Backalley Memes so he can comment on the article.

Erik tries to figure out who actually supports Article 13 and comes up with the IFPI. He finds an IFPI video on Vimeo where James Blunt explains why he wants Article 13 to pass. He tries to find IFPI on YouTube, but all he finds are videos about IFPI taking down other people's videos.

Then he finds another advocacy group that supports it, the European Publishers Council. He looks at their Twitter and finds a video of a woman in a Supergirl costume singing about how Article 13 is good. Then he makes a fart video that segues into Nobbleberry and tweets it to them.

Erik gets bored with Article 13 so he finds something else to read and tweets Ted Cruz. He asks Long Hair Erik if he wants to say something. He doesn't, but Rotten Pineapple Erik talks about Burt Reynolds dying.

## Comments

*Article 13*
- @commentiquette

*LOL America wins again you stupid commie europeans! My great great grandpappy didn't get blown up by a British cannonball in Saratoga just so yall frog eatin pussies can prevent me from putting silly text on lord of the rings screenshots and uploading them for fake internet points on reddit. I'm a proud American, I pay my taxes, I don't vote, and sometimes I have sex with my gun while listening to free music on Spotify radio! I hope you dumb so-called europeans don't try to push your copyright bot bullshit on us because tell you what we'll come over there and plant a flag in your queens butthole! Nice job goin all 1984 on yourselves don't come crawling back to us when it's illegal to sing along to fuckin Mr Brightside at the bar unless you paid a license fee. Man I'd hate to live over there it sounds stupid though if we're being fair, in America we did have a president who 9/11'd us that one time so either way it's a roll of the dice and the dice are my balls*
- Erik

*Hey dude great video, really informative and I appreciate how you stayed objective with the facts of the legislation and gave some examples of how this might affect fellow creators. After all, it's our generation that will be responsible for upholding the freedom of the internet and that should never be decided by folks who are too old or ignorant to understand how to control the future of the web. Anyway I think it's cool that you were named after the kid from the Cosby Show*
- Erik

*Hey guys it's Backalley Memes dot com here! We're the page with the memes they won't let you see! We got copyrighted material from SpongeBob SquarePants, Arthur, both the American and the British Office, and your guys' favorite movie Birth of a Nation! Grab these memes before George Soros and the deep state clamp my nuts to the back of a Toyota Prius and drag me into one of their pizza place kill shelters, and always remember you can't spell FEMALE without FEMA! That's one of the memes we have on backalleymemes DOT COM check it out today and leave a like or reply if your daughter's not allowed to date outside the family.*
- Backalley Memes

*Hey so let’s say I use a clip from a movie that also has a song in it for one of my videos. Will I get copyright striked for the movie or the song? Do you IFPI pricks get in the ring and bare knuckle box Martin Scorsese over my bullshit ad revenue? By the way correct me if I'm wrong but aren't record labels notorious for fucking over artists way worse and for way longer than some dude using ten seconds of your song in a youtube video? I mean listen I'm not saying artists don't deserve fair compensation, because they absolutely do, but if it involves creating a system where false positives are more likely to be treated as copyright infringement then you’re just screwing over a whole other group of artists and depriving them of their fair compensation. I just find it hard to believe that sites like youtube and facebook are stifling your money enough that you gotta go stick your fuckin hands in my pocket. Unless of course this is just the IFPI trying to force tech giants to pay license fees so they can make more money and hand a tiny bit to the creators they represent who knows maybe that's it I mean that's probably it**Anyway I heard penises were allowed on vimeo so check this sucker out (\_)\_):::::::::::::::::D~~~~~ LOL jk that's a spaceship hope NASA doesn't hit me with a copyright strike for using their design you fuckin pimps*
- Erik

*@IFPI\_org illegal Nobbleberry HD copyright rip*
- @commentiquette

*@tedcruz I wanna stick Article 13 in my pussy*
- @commentiquette

## Goofs

* After Erik posts his comment to ThioJoe, it displays the comment he left on TomoNews.

## Context

1. ↑ The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is an advocacy group for the recording industry and record producers.
2. ↑ Birth of a Nation is a silent film from 1915 that portrays the Ku Klux Klan as heroes.

## Video

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