EU Court Says YouTube May Be Liable For Copyright Breaches

The EU’s top court on Tuesday said online platforms like YouTube
can in some circumstances be held responsible for copyrighted
material illegally uploaded by users.

The preliminary ruling will likely be welcomed by German music
producer Frank Peterson who has been locked in a long-running legal
battle with YouTube over unauthorised uploads featuring British
artist Sarah Brightman.

The Court of Justice of the European Union found that generally
speaking, YouTube and the likes are not responsible for users
posting protected content without permission.

“Operators of online platforms do not, in principle, themselves
make a communication to the public of copyright-protected content
illegally posted online by users of those platforms,” judges
said.

But the situation changes once operators of such sites are made
aware of copyright breaches and fail to act “expeditiously” to
remove or block the content and ensure the infringements do not
recur, they said.

Operators can also be liable for copyright violations if they
refrain from putting in place technological tools to “credibly and
effectively” fight against illegal uploads.

The EU judgement was triggered by two cases currently before
Germany’s Federal Court of Justice, whose judges in 2018 asked the
Luxembourg-based court for guidance.

The first involves a lawsuit by Hamburg music producer Peterson
against YouTube and its parent company Google for various songs and
performances by soprano Sarah Brightman that were illegally posted
in 2008.

YouTube removed some but not all of the content, to which
Peterson holds the rights, and the case has been snaking its way
through German courts for years.

Peterson is seeking damages from YouTube, arguing that the site
is liable for the copyright infringements and has earned
advertising revenue from hosting the videos.

The second case involves a claim by Dutch publisher Elsevier
against file-hosting website Cyando, for copyrighted works uploaded
by users without permission.

It is now up to the German court to decide how to interpret the
EU judgement in these two cases.

The impact of the EU ruling beyond these two cases will be
limited however because they cover events that took place before
the European Union reformed its copyright laws in 2019.

The new regulations place a heavier burden on online
content-sharing services to protect copyright.

In a response to Tuesday’s ruling, YouTube said it “supports
rights holders being paid their fair share”.

“That’s why we’ve invested in state-of-the-art copyright tools
which have created an entirely new revenue stream for the
industry,” it said in a statement.

“In the past 12 months alone we have paid $4 billion (3.4
billion euros) to the music industry, over 30 percent of which
comes from monetised user-generated content.”

The EU’s top court on Tuesday said online platforms like YouTube
can in some circumstances be held responsible for copyrighted
material illegally uploaded by users.

The preliminary ruling will likely be welcomed by German music
producer Frank Peterson who has been locked in a long-running legal
battle with YouTube over unauthorised uploads featuring British
artist Sarah Brightman.

The Court of Justice of the European Union found that generally
speaking, YouTube and the likes are not responsible for users
posting protected content without permission.

“Operators of online platforms do not, in principle, themselves
make a communication to the public of copyright-protected content
illegally posted online by users of those platforms,” judges
said.

But the situation changes once operators of such sites are made
aware of copyright breaches and fail to act “expeditiously” to
remove or block the content and ensure the infringements do not
recur, they said.

Operators can also be liable for copyright violations if they
refrain from putting in place technological tools to “credibly and
effectively” fight against illegal uploads.

The EU judgement was triggered by two cases currently before
Germany’s Federal Court of Justice, whose judges in 2018 asked the
Luxembourg-based court for guidance.

The first involves a lawsuit by Hamburg music producer Peterson
against YouTube and its parent company Google for various songs and
performances by soprano Sarah Brightman that were illegally posted
in 2008.

YouTube removed some but not all of the content, to which
Peterson holds the rights, and the case has been snaking its way
through German courts for years.

Peterson is seeking damages from YouTube, arguing that the site
is liable for the copyright infringements and has earned
advertising revenue from hosting the videos.

The second case involves a claim by Dutch publisher Elsevier
against file-hosting website Cyando, for copyrighted works uploaded
by users without permission.

It is now up to the German court to decide how to interpret the
EU judgement in these two cases.

The impact of the EU ruling beyond these two cases will be
limited however because they cover events that took place before
the European Union reformed its copyright laws in 2019.

The new regulations place a heavier burden on online
content-sharing services to protect copyright.

In a response to Tuesday’s ruling, YouTube said it “supports
rights holders being paid their fair share”.

“That’s why we’ve invested in state-of-the-art copyright tools
which have created an entirely new revenue stream for the
industry,” it said in a statement.

“In the past 12 months alone we have paid $4 billion (3.4
billion euros) to the music industry, over 30 percent of which
comes from monetised user-generated content.”