YouTube CEO Says Article 13 Could Kill Music Videos

In her strongest statement so far, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says that the European Union’s proposed Article 13 copyright directive is impossible for YouTube to comply with.

“Platforms that follow these rules, and make a good effort to help rights holders identify their content, shouldn’t be held directly liable for every single piece of content that a user uploads,” Wojcicki wrote in a new blog post.

"The parliament’s approach is unrealistic in many cases because copyright owners often disagree over who owns what rights," she continues. "If the owners cannot agree, it is impossible to expect the open platforms that host this content to make the correct rights decisions."

Wojcicki uses the global music hit “Despacito” to make her point.

"This video contains multiple copyrights, ranging from sound recording to publishing rights. Although YouTube has agreements with multiple entities to license and pay for the video, some of the rights holders remain unknown. That uncertainty means we might have to block videos like this to avoid liability under article 13. Multiply that risk with the scale of YouTube, where more than 400 hours of video are uploaded every minute, and the potential liabilities could be so large that no company could take on such a financial risk.

The affects will be felt behind the EU, writes the CEO.

"The consequences of article 13 go beyond financial losses. EU residents are at risk of being cut off from videos that, in just the last month, they viewed more than 90bn times. Those videos come from around the world, including more than 35m EU channels, and they include language classes and science tutorials as well as music videos."