YouTube ordered to pay more for music

LONDON: Video sites such as YouTube will be forced to pay more to musicians and record companies under plans to reform European copyright laws, reports the BBC.
The draft directive will also require publishers and producers to tell performers or authors what profits their works have generated.
The music industry has long criticized YouTube for failing to pay enough for content such as music.
News publishers will also be recognized as rights holders for the first time.
Under the directive, portals such as Google News would be forced to pay newspaper publishers a fee when using small extracts or snippets of news stories.
Carlo Perrone, head of the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association, said creating a copyright for news publishers in Europe was a “significant and historic step.”
Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said: “I want journalists, publishers and authors to be paid fairly for their work, whether it is made in studios or living rooms, whether it is disseminated offline or online, whether it is published via a copying machine or hyperlinked on the web.”
The Commission has not detailed how it would force sites such as YouTube to pay more to artists.
The plans also call for easier access to online content across all EU countries and to reform copyright rules for research and education.
Andrus Ansip, vice president for the digital single market, said: “Our proposal will ensure that more content will be available, transforming Europe’s copyright rules in light of a new digital reality.”