Privacy News YouTube CEO Says That Videos May Be Blocked Due to EU Copyright Law

[upnorth]

Content source

https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-ceo-says-that-videos-may-be-blocked-due-to-eu-copyright-law-181112/

YouTube's CEO is warning that the platform may have to begin blocking videos in response to legislation making its way through the EU Parliament. The final text of Article 13 is yet to be decided but Susan Wojcicki is warning that the current wording would hold it responsible for the copyright infringements of users, something that could impact the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people.

Two years ago the European Commission announced plans to modernize EU copyright law. Some of the proposals were hugely controversial. Article 13, for example, would see the liability for infringing content switched from users of sites like YouTube to the platform itself. But, despite warnings, in September the European Parliament voted in favor of proposals put forward by Axel Voss’ EPP group. This is a revised version of the original proposal, but one that would still pave the way for upload filters, to prevent infringing content from reaching sites like YouTube in the first place. However, speaking today in Financial Times (paywall), YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says that blocking videos may be the platform’s only option. “While we support the goals of article 13, the European Parliament’s current proposal will create unintended consequences that will have a profound impact on the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people,” Wojcicki writes. “The parliament’s approach is unrealistic in many cases because copyright owners often disagree over who owns what rights. If the owners cannot agree, it is impossible to expect the open platforms that host this content to make the correct rights decisions.”

Using the hit “Despacito” as an example, Wojcicki says that the track contains multiple copyrights including sound recording and publishing rights. YouTube has agreements with several parties to license the video but other rightsholders remain unknown. This could present a situation so complex that YouTube might have to stop hosting the video altogether. “That uncertainty means we might have to block videos like this to avoid liability under article 13. Multiply that risk with the scale of YouTube, where more than 400 hours of video are uploaded every minute, and the potential liabilities could be so large that no company could take on such a financial risk,” she adds. While the rest of the world appears to be safe from such blocking, YouTube’s CEO warns that it is EU residents that will be affected. During the last month alone, videos were viewed by citizens more than 90 billion times.

 

[RejZoR]

EU really cocked up this one. I wonder what the F were they thinking when they cooked up this nonsense... Not much apparently...

 

[DeepWeb]

Eh, YouTube will come up with something. Surely conforming is going to be cheaper than moving all the servers out of Europe?

 

[Janl1992l]

EU really cocked up this one. I wonder what the F were they thinking when they cooked up this nonsense... Not much apparently...

This is absolutly not onsense. I life in europe and it just a "colonie" from the USA. whoever believe we life in a democratie is totaly system brainwashed. they want to add a filter to the internet. its just for the pure propaganda and the time comes, where u cant post different stuff about for example politic/gov/military and so on. Your opion is not allowed, they dont want you to think for your own. But that goes way to deep to write more about it here.Im just saying NewWorldOrder.

 

[ChemicalB]

I think the mistake is to consider copyright as a method to guarantee to the rights holders (not the artists but the producers and distributors), the exclusive control of their works. In reality, the copyright is a set of complex rights designed to promote creativity in the public interest. To protect the creativity, the first step is the extension of the exceptions to the Internet but it seems the rights of the owners are at the top without even seriously consider the exceptions.

 

[AlanOstaszewski]

This is absolutly not onsense. I life in europe and it just a "colonie" from the USA. whoever believe we life in a democratie is totaly system brainwashed. they want to add a filter to the internet. its just for the pure propaganda and the time comes, where u cant post different stuff about for example politic/gov/military and so on. Your opion is not allowed, they dont want you to think for your own. But that goes way to deep to write more about it here.Im just saying NewWorldOrder.

I'm not a fan of the upload filter either, but your criticism is almost a conspiracy theory. What happened in your life that you lost all your trust in politics and democracy? That sounds very sad in my eyes.