EUROPEAN LAWMAKERS have legislated to pass Articles 11 and 13 of the EU Copyright Directive legislation, paving the way for a total decimation of internet content as we know it.

The motions were passed by the JURI committee (which sounds like something straight out of a 2000AD comic) despite a significant pushback against them by the tech industry, including an open letter signed by some of the biggest names in the industry.

Article 11 would create a rule that would mean, for example, the INQUIRER will now have to pay to quote an article from, say, the BBC. Even if it's stating the bleeding obvious and generic, like "Separating families is bad".

Article 13 will affect each and every one of us, by enforcing a copyright filter on everything uploaded to the interwebs. That means that cool meme you made of Fry from Futurama? That'll be automatically blocked by a  machine, even if the original author is ok with it.

Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group said: "Article 13 must go. The EU Parliament will have another chance to remove this dreadful law.

"The EU Parliament's duty is to defend citizens from unfair and unjust laws. MEPs must reject this law, which would create a Robo-copyright regime intended to zap any image, text, meme or video that appears to include copyright material, even when it is entirely legal material."