Two more significant letters have been issued in support of changes to YouTube-shielding safe harbour laws.
58 members of European Parliament have penned a letter urging the European Commission to clarify the status of YouTube under copyright law.
Addressed to President Juncker, Vice-President Ansip and Commissioner Oettinger, the letter again discusses the “non-comparable increase in revenues from the increase in consumption” from platforms that host UGC and content aggregation services.
The signatories call on the European Commission to “create legal certainty by presenting solutions which will suit creators, rights holders and consumers alike.”
Reads the letter: “We believe that there will not be a Digital Single Market without content. Therefore the upcoming copyright reform should make clear that liability exemptions can only apply to genuinely neutral and passive online service providers, and not to services that play an active role in distributing, promoting and monetising content at the expense of creators.
“We are convinced that removing this distortion in the digital market would stimulate growth in the European digital economy.”
Meanwhile, the International Artist Organisation (IAO) has written to the EC, asking to ensure it’s not just the major label’s interest that is served in any possible safe harbour reforms.
Referring to the IFPI’s call to close the so-called value-gap, IAO President Paul Pacifico agrees that there is confusion over whether platforms like YouTube should be treated in the same way as the likes of Spotify and Apple Music when it comes to licensing.
However, Pacifico questions how artists might fare out of the upcoming copyright review – while being left in the dark over the true value of potential licensing agreements thanks to NDAs.
“Artists have always been told to support our intermediaries when lobbying – that we will be ‘looked after’ if only we play along. We were not looked after in the wake of the copyright term extension campaign and we must make sure that this travesty is not repeated in the current copyright review.”
paul pacifico, iao
Said Pacifico: “Artists have always been told to support our intermediaries when lobbying – that we will be ‘looked after’ if only we play along. We were not looked after in the wake of the copyright term extension campaign and we must make sure that this travesty is not repeated in the current copyright review.
“Yes we must pull together to ‘grow the cake’ as we are constantly told, but not to address how that cake is being cut at the same time would be to cut the artists’ slice out of the picture.”
The copyright review must “have at its heart” four pillars that cover transparency, said Pacifico: a fair share of value, a duty of care from artist’s intermediaries and updated remuneration rights that reflect the “realities of consumer behaviour in digital”.
You can view the IAO’s letter in full here, and the text from members of European Parliament here.
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