The European Court of Justice (CJEU) is set to rule on whether YouTube should be held legally responsible for copyright infringement on its platform.
Owned by global technology group Google, the video-sharing platform is used by billions of users worldwide to watch and publish curated content.
Despite having sophisticated autonomous controls in place to prevent copyright infringement, the system can be bypassed to allow users to upload protected content without consent.
The most recent case concerns a German intellectual property dispute brought by a music producer against YouTube who argues that his copyrighted audio material was not removed promptly after a takedown notice was ordered.
The claimant is seeking compensation from the video-sharing platform as he believes that the website is responsible for hosting and distributing the video.
Google, however, argues that it is protected under the “safe harbour” provisions of the EU’s former e-commerce directive which considers video-sharing platforms “passive”, meaning they do directly communicate copyrighted materials to the public.
The case comes after the European Union adopted the controversial Digital Services Act, which demands a stricter licensing regime between sharing platforms and copyright holders.
Experts commenting on the case believe that a ruling against YouTube will have wide-ranging consequences for the social sharing industry, as well as shape the future of copyright in the EU.
The case continues.