For YouTube, European copyright law is not financially viable – Link



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Susan Wojcicki is the CEO of YouTube

Susan Wojcicki is the CEO of YouTube

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has once again criticized the European Union copyright bill called Copyright Directive – Last month, it was stopped against the law. In a company blog post this week, Susan said that it was impossible for platforms like YouTube to adjust regulations. According to him, the regulation will have a big financial impact on companies that deal with content on the internet.

To explain his point, YouTube's chief executive was used as an example of Despacito's music video, a success worldwide. He said the video had several copyrights, from voice recordings to publishing rights. The problem, he explained, is that while YouTube has multiple video license agreements, some rights holders are unknown. "This uncertainty means that we may have to block videos like this, in accordance with the rules of Article 13 of Copyright Directive"Susan said in the publication.

Article 13 is one of the most controversial issues in the EU copyright bill. The specific part of this rule is called the "upload filter" and requires platforms such as YouTube, GitHub, Instagram and eBay to monitor their users' publications to ensure that content posted on the network complies with copyright.

This article is highly criticized because the upload filter will place the same level of copyright infringement content as parodies, memes and videos like Despacito's songs. The funny meme that somehow uses the work of third parties to make the joke is almost banned in Europe – if the bill is passed in a final decision in January 2019.

The YouTube CEO said it was impossible to make the blockage demanded by law. "Duplicate the risk of blocking by considering the YouTube scale, where more than 400 hours of video uploads on the platform every minute. The losses can be so large that no company takes this financial risk," he said.

Impact. According to Sérgio Branco, director of the Rio de Janeiro Institute of Technology and Society (ITS-Rio), one of the most serious problems of the European Bill is that it does not contain sector limitations, which makes implementation difficult. Even if YouTube, which is a giant company, complains about the financial impracticability of the law, one can imagine the dissatisfaction of small sites. "Smaller platforms don't even have the money to make filters used by Google and Facebook," Branco said.

Currently, YouTube is not a lawless land: YouTube uses a system called Content ID, whose function is to identify content that violates copyright. Since 2007, when services were launched, YouTube has invested more than $ 100 million in Content ID, according to the website The Verge. For regulators, YouTube filters are not enough to solve problems.

In addition, Branco explained that another stone in regulation shoes was a conflict he might have with laws from other countries, such as Brazil. "Our law has a chapter on copyright restrictions, where they are not absolute. A number of rights are granted to the public, which may even conflict with the authors if they endanger freedom of expression." And precisely on the issue of freedom of expression, which involves prohibiting memes, for example , that European regulations take strong action.

According to Branco, world law is still looking for copyright issues because recently compared to other legal issues. With technology, everything is blurry. "Now this is not just a legal matter, this is an economic problem," he said, "With Netflix, for example, copies of films on the Internet have declined not because of laws but by new businesses".

* He was a trainee under the supervision of journalist Bruno Romani

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