European Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (Article 13)

Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is an European Union's directive intended to ensure "a well-functioning marketplace for the exploitation of works and other subject-matter... taking into account in particular digital and cross-border uses of protected content".

It was introduced into European Parliament on 20 June 2018, and in 25 March 2019 it was accepted by EP with 348 votes in favour, 274 against. Final draft of directive was accepted by Council of European Union on 15 April 2019 with 19 votes in favour against 5, three countries abstained.

The directive caused major protests against it due to included Articles 11 and 13, which are oftenly described as violating the right of free speech in Internet. Article 11 demands the publishing sites to pay for copyrights a set amount of money to the authors. An Article 13 demands every media publishing site to implement upload filters and makes them responsible for every copyright infringement if there's any. As of 21 March 2019, a petition against the directive published on Change.org gathered 5 million signatures, being the most-signed petition on this website ever created.

Effect on Downfall parodies
Since vast majority of parodies is hosted on YouTube, it may result in deletion of thousands of films due and possible blocking of future uploads for European Untergangers within two years. According to YouTube CEO, the legislation "poses a threat to both your livelihood and your ability to share your voice with the world". Even though the range is only limited to Europe-based creators, Untergangers may become an easy target of automated upload-filtering bots or third-party copyright strikes like those issued by Constantin Film in the early 2010s. False claims and abuse of ContentID-like systems may occur even more often than does currently.

Many Untergangers expressed their protest against the directive, by openly criticising it or making a comparison how would look parody-making look like if the directive takes effect. However, the directive was a cause for certain Untergangers to stop making parodies in general.