YouTube sees partial copyright victory in top EU court

Google-owned YouTube, and similar platforms, are largely not liable for users' posting of copyright-protected content without permission, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Tuesday.

But operators can still be held liable if platforms fail to take quick action to remove or block access to the content. Operators can also be liable for copyright violations if they do not use technological tools to "credibly and effectively" fight against illegal uploads.

The ruling from the EU's top court is the latest in a series of legal battles over online copyright rules. 

The ECJ ruling comes after a German court sought consultation on two cases involving video copyright law. 

The first was a case by music producer Frank Peterson, who took YouTube and Google to court in 2008 over users' uploading music content to which he holds the rights to YouTube.

In a second case, publishing group Elsevier took legal action against file-hosting service Cyando in Germany. The platform's users uploaded several Elsevier works on its platform in 2013 without its approval.

What did the ECJ say?

"As currently stands, 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," ECJ judges said in their ruling. 

"However, those operators do make such a communication in breach of copyright where they contribute, beyond merely making those platforms available, to giving access to such content to the public," the ruling added. 

YouTube responds

In response to the court ruling, a YouTube spokesperson said: "YouTube is a leader in copyright and 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. In the past 12 months alone we have paid $4 billion ($3.6 billion) to the music industry, over 30% of which comes from monetized user-generated content."

What happens next?

It is now up to the German court to decide how to interpret the EU judgment 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 EU reformed its copyright laws in 2019.

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

kmm/wmr (Reuters, AFP)