Quick Take: EU Takes A Swipe At YouTube’s Safe Harbour

The EU today announced a raft of reform proposals for copyright, encompassing news, video and of course music. Among the proposals is the recommendation that sites like YouTube that currently operate under safe harbour proposals would have to proactively scan their services for copyright infringing material. This is music to the ears of labels who have been lobbying loudly for this change.

There is no doubt that content identification technology is dramatically better now than it was decades ago when safe harbour provisions were first enshrined in legislation. The fact that YouTube has its highly effective Content ID technology but only uses it post-facto has long been a bone of contention for labels. So this change, if approved and implemented will fix one of the music industry’s big ‘YouTube problems’.

To read the full post on the MIDiA blog please follow the link.