The CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, today described the copyright regulation that prepares the European Parliament to be a “threat” for small creators and for “hundreds of thousands” of jobs, for which it called the community of Internet users to protest against it.
In a letter addressed to the content creators of the platform, Wojcicki said that, if approved in its current version, the controversial article 13 could force portals such as YouTube to “allow only content from a small number of large companies.”
This article determines the responsibility of the platforms if protected content is uploaded to the network and is one of several points included in a text to which the European Parliament already gave its first approval on 12 September.
The proposed directive aims to remunerate “fair” authors online as they are paid for their work outside the network, and is now in the next steps of the legislative process until the final vote, scheduled for January.
“This legislation is a threat to your way of making a living and your ability to share your voice with the rest of the world.” Article 13 threatens hundreds of thousands of jobs, European creators, companies, artists and all those to whom they give jobs ” , said the person in charge of YouTube.
The measure proposed by European lawmakers does not oblige Internet companies to establish an indiscriminate surveillance system, but holds them liable if copyright violations occur in the content posted by users.
According to Efe sources told Youtube, this would imply “have lawyers approve each video before it is published, but as every minute uploads 400 hours of video, it is an impossible task.”
According to the company based in San Bruno (California, USA) and owned by internet giant Alphabet (Google’s parent company), the proposed directive could affect content that is present on the portal today. as educational videos and tutorials.
“Tell the world through social networks and your channel why the economy of creators is important and how this legislation will affect you,” asked the CEO to the creators, who suggested the label #SalvadVuestroInternet.
In addition to YouTube and Google, the measure proposed by the European Parliament would also affect other major online players such as Facebook, Twitter and music platforms in “streaming”, and could mean the end of many of the popular “memes” that circulate through the network without paying royalties.
