EU reforms to strip YouTube of copyright legal protection
YouTube faces an uncertain future in Europe under a proposed shake-up of legal protections afforded to video hosting websites which would see it given greater responsibility for identifying and blocking copyrighted content.
The change would make it easier for content owners to challenge hosting firms in court and require the likes of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to proactively root out copyrighted material instead of assessing requests on a case-by-case basis upon being notified by rights holders.
YouTube parent Google reacted negatively to the plans with Caroline Atkinson, vice-president of global policy, stating: “This would effectively turn the internet into a place where everything uploaded to the web must be cleared by lawyers before it can find an audience.”
European officials counter that the changes are necessary in order to empower rights-holders when dealing with Silicon Valley giants.
The rules will differentiate between passive video hosting sites, which will be exempt from the new rules, and active sites which promote and package their own content.