The Sunday Letter, 3 March 2019
Happy Sunday, Pixies and Countrymen
This week’s letter is heavily weighted towards legal stuff. If you think it’s boring, you won’t when you realise that you might need to know it. One use case might be that you have audience members who are EU citizens, and who upload literally anything to your site, app, blog (or other).
But right at the end is a deep-dive piece on how screen readers interact with your content.
Accessibility and copyright are what I consider two of the most critical elements of any content operation. If you’re not creating accessible works, then you’re running up against Australia’s Disability Discrimination Act. And if you’re not hyper aware of copyright and media law, then you might inadvertently get yourself in trouble.
And in any case, it’s fascinating reading.
til next week, may your week sparkle!
cheers
Leticia,
Queen Pixie at Brutal Pixie
Tip of the Week
If you feel trapped by social media, take the issue of your distribution channels seriously. When you problem-solve them, you might realise you’ve not really considered all your available options.
The Sunday Five
If you spot share-worthy articles related to business publishing, media law, communication, or similar, send them to hello@brutalpixie.com.
Article #1, #2, and #3 this week are about the fact that the EU is updating its copyright law
If you’re wondering why, when you’re probably in Australia (most of our Sunday Letter audience is!), allow us to point out something: Your digital assets exist in a globalised society, and territoriality is not something you can easily control - especially if you use social media.
Online, you need to be across much more than just your own jurisdiction; it’s true for GDPR, and it’s likely to be the case for its digital single market.
This law is apparently controversial. When I say ‘controversial’, I mean ‘painful for technology companies and pirates’. The controversy seems to be on the side of businesses and technology, rather than on the side of rights holders.
The licensing requirements are extensive. They include:
requiring a license for more than a few words (or small extracts) reproduced of a news story
that there are no exclusions for individuals (yes, which includes your blog)
that if users can upload content to your site or app, you need to buy licenses from from all of them for anything they may upload
you’ll have to do everything your power to prevent the upload of unauthorised versions of material that rights holders have previously uploaded
sites will be directly liable
rights holders will also be able to opt out of having their works data-mined, except for explicit research purposes.
Article 13 moves the power into the hands of rights-holders, which Ars Technica argues will make it easier to police huge platforms like YouTube. However, they also suggest that successful implementation will be tricky, and that the law is ‘optimistic’.
Read the detail about this:
Here’s the Pirate Party’s view: https://juliareda.eu/2019/02/eu-copyright-final-text/
Here’s the Ars Technica article: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/02/european-governments-approve-controversial-new-copyright-law/
And here’s the press release from the Council of the EU: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2019/02/13/eu-copyright-rules-adjusted-to-the-digital-age/
What does this mean for you? If your platform, site, blog, or app is accessible and usable by citizens of the European Union, the law is likely to apply to you. That means: You need to get across this, and before a decision is reached. Here is the timeline: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-single-market/
Article #4 this week is about the National Law Council’s call to review suppression orders
If you’re on the Queen Pixie’s Daily Emails List, then you’ll remember that she recently sent out a piece on Australian media law. The TL;DR of that is this: If you have a blog or website (for any purpose) then you constitute ‘the media’ and are subject to suppression orders issued by courts. If you don’t, then you can be found in contempt of court.
The reason for the National Law Councils’ call is that it’s impossible to shield jurors from social media. Why’s this important? Because media outside the Australian jurisdiction aren’t subject to suppression orders, and can publish what they want to, and when.
Maybe it’s time for Australia to follow the EU’s lead, and to nationalise and update its legislation for the 21st century.
Read this piece at https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/national-law-council-calls-for-review-into-suppression-orders-20190227-p510hq.html
Article #5 is much more in our own backyard - it’s about moving from semantics to screen readers
This week, A List Apart published this excellent piece about how your content gets from your site to a screen reader, via accessibility APIs. The TL;DR is this:
Your developer takes your content and marks it appropriately. This is ‘semantic’: The code tells your browser which bit refers to what kind of element it is, what state it’s in, all that jazz.
The browser you’re using takes all that info and ‘maps’ it to an accessibility API. Different platforms may all be different.
Your screen reader picks up an API that then allows it to see and represent the content. The API actually does all the work. And how it then uses that information to allow interaction between the user the content is really up to the screen reader.
That’s why it’s so critical to test your content to discover where the experience is laboured or awkward.
There is a huge amount more in this article; its depth is significant. Read it if you’re a web developer, content designer, or UX practitioner.
Read it at http://alistapart.com/article/semantics-to-screen-readers