Google, Facebook Forced to Pay Creators Under New EU Rules
Google, Facebook Forced to Pay Creators Under New EU
Rules
Natalia Drozdiak February 13, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- Online platforms will be required to
compensate publishers and creators for the content that appears on their
websites, under new European Union copyright rules that could shrink access to
online media in Europe.
The new rules mean music producers and publishers could
come gunning for more money from Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. to
compensate for the display of their songs, video and news articles.
If artists and music producers refuse to grant platforms
licenses, tech firms will be required to remove or block uploads. And if
platforms don’t negotiate licenses with publishers, or if publishers don’t
waive their rights, web firms won’t be able to display longer fragments of news
articles under headlines.
The rules "will enable creators to be remunerated
fairly by large online platforms that today are siphoning the value of the
creative sector while failing to compensate creators,” said Veronique
Desbrosses, Director General of GESAC, a European umbrella association of
authors and composers.
The legislation, proposed by the European Commission in
2016 and agreed to with the European Parliament and member states Wednesday, is
designed to help artists, musicians, publishers and other creators get fair
payment for use of their content online. But the copyright rules provoked years
of lobbying on all sides, with free-speech activists saying they could result
in censorship online.
In response to the copyright agreement, Google spokesman
Damien Roemer said in a statement: "We’ll be studying the final text of
the EU copyright directive and it will take some time to determine next
steps." He added that "the details will matter, so we welcome the
chance to continue conversations across Europe."
The search giant said recently it may pull its Google
News service from Europe in response to the law, particularly if publishers
aren’t allowed to waive their rights. It said it would take the decision
reluctantly and only after analyzing the final text. Google has already
deactivated the product in Spain.
Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for
comment. The Computer and Communications Industry Association, which represents
Facebook and Google, said in a statement the rules are a "lost opportunity
to achieve a balanced and future-proof EU copyright reform," adding it
could "harm online innovation, scaleups, and restrict online freedoms in
Europe."
As part of the new rules, the EU is requiring tech firms
to negotiate licenses for songs or video clips before publishing user uploads
of content that incorporates them. In situations where no licenses are
concluded, they are required to make "best efforts" to obtain
authorization, according to the EU. Platforms also have to do everything in
their power to remove or block material that rights holders have flagged in
advance and quickly remove any unauthorized content once notified.
"This law will fundamentally change the internet as
we know it," said Julia Reda, a member of the European Parliament from
Germany’s Pirate Party and staunch opponent of the copyright package on
concerns of censorship. Platforms "will have no choice but to deploy
upload filters, which are by their nature both expensive and error-prone."
The bloc also agreed to grant publishers new legal rights
to help them seek compensation from all types of online services that display
longer fragments of their articles. "Very short" snippets and
individual words, such as in hyperlinks, are not covered by the law, the EU
said. And publishers, which often get significant internet traffic to their
sites from search and social, are allowed to waive their rights and let
platforms display the content for free.
The rules create new liabilities for tech firms, chipping
away at previous protections that absolved them of legal responsibility for
what users posted on their sites. Those carve-outs were designed to help web
firms grow in the early days of the internet but now officials want them to
shoulder more responsibility for the material their users create, such as
terror content, hate speech, and fake news.
The agreement on copyright still needs to be
rubber-stamped by the European Parliament and the bloc’s member states, which
is typically a formality.
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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