ECJ: Is YouTube a copyright provider?

On Friday, I said a few words about the new streaming platform Mixer from Microsoft(see this article). Actually, I wanted to make a new contribution to whether it is relevant, in which country the streamer is located, which legal situations are applicable and many other points that are directly or indirectly connected with the question whether portals such as YouTube, Mixer or Twitch itself are are providers of the content or whether they only offer the possibility of streaming under European law.

The distinction has a central impact on a number of legal issues. I have now just learned that the European Court of Justice will hear the related cases of YouTube and Uploaded on November 26, 2019, in which the question is whether the service itself makes content publicly accessible and is therefore liable for damages.

In the case of Google (C-682/18), the Federal Court of Justice has submitted to the ECJ, among other things, the question whether YouTube makes videos publicly available to the public if the platform makes money, the process of uploading automatically and without prior view or control. YouTube will receive a worldwide, non-exclusive and royalty-free license to the videos in accordance with the Terms of Use for the duration of the discontinuation of the video, and is advised in the Terms of Use and as part of the upload process that: content that infringes copyright may not be discontinued.

In addition, there are numerous other questions from the Federal Court of Justice, which are based on the respective answer options, which is why it is possible that many relevant questions will be answered in the near future.

In the case of uploaded uploaded matters (C-683/18), the BGH asks similar questions, namely whether the operator of a share hosting service through which users make files containing copyrighted content publicly available without the consent of the rightholders constitutes an act of Reproduction within the meaning of Article 3(3) 1 of Directive 2001/29/EC.

Depending on the outcome of the procedure and the extent to which the ECJ carries out, many questions could be answered, which could be applicable to similar platforms, but could also become highly relevant when it comes to how platforms with user-generated content in future and shape their terms and conditions.

Author: Marian Härtel

Marian Härtel ist Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für IT-Recht mit einer über 25-jährigen Erfahrung als Unternehmer und Berater in den Bereichen Games, E-Sport, Blockchain, SaaS und Künstliche Intelligenz. Seine Beratungsschwerpunkte umfassen neben dem IT-Recht insbesondere das Urheberrecht, Medienrecht sowie Wettbewerbsrecht. Er betreut schwerpunktmäßig Start-ups, Agenturen und Influencer, die er in strategischen Fragen, komplexen Vertragsangelegenheiten sowie bei Investitionsprojekten begleitet. Dabei zeichnet sich seine Beratung durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz aus, der juristische Expertise und langjährige unternehmerische Erfahrung miteinander verbindet. Ziel seiner Tätigkeit ist stets, Mandanten praxisorientierte Lösungen anzubieten und rechtlich fundierte Unterstützung bei der Umsetzung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle zu gewährleisten.