EU could make YouTube share advt revenue

Brussels, August 26

Websites such as Google’s YouTube, DailyMotion and Pinterest could be required by the European Union to seek licences or revenue-sharing deals with artists for content that is uploaded by their users.

The music industry has long complained that services such as YouTube do not pay artists enough for their music and has urged regulators to close what it calls the “value gap”.

They say that Alphabet Inc’s Google makes vast sums from ad-supported services such as YouTube, but only a small share of the money goes to the music industry.

The European Commission is looking at imposing an obligation on platforms hosting user-uploaded content — such as YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion — to seek agreements with rights holders “reflecting the economic value of the use made of the protected content”, according to a draft paper, seen by Reuters, listing the preferred options for the EU’s copyright reform. Reuters