YouTube has been known to deal with things like copyright with an hammer rather than a scalpel. I expect them to just make half of the content unavailable for EU cause it may violate some copyright.
That would change absolutely nothing. As long as the have a foot in the EU, whatever if the content is available in Europe or not, it would be illegal. What they'll have to do is to close all their subsidiaries in a country member of the EU. But they'll not do it, because in reality the article 17 isn't about copyright infringement, but about big money.
The article 17 don't say that you can't anymore use protected content in your video, it say that the copyright holders agree to this use, as long as they receive a part of the money earned by the hosting site. The said article 17 add that, if no agreement can be reached, the hosting site will need to use all what is in its power to remove by itself the illegal content ; what they already do anyway because of the DMCA.
If youtube complain, it's because they'll earn less and have to contact and negotiate with hundred of people ; there's more that a "copyright holders association" in each countries and no global one. It's also because they'll have to find by themselves who hold the rights for this and that, which isn't always easy.
If creators of content complain, its because the technology used to detect copyright infringement is
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. So, they can be amputated of a part of what they should have earned, while in fact they didn't used protected content or didn't goes further than a parody ; parodies being explicitly excluded by the article 17.
And if wikipedia complain, it's because of article 15 (old article 11) that is something else but worse ; you should pay to link to a press article...
ATM I don't think YouTube or PornHub or anyone have to take down a video because of DMCA.
[...]
The copyright holders can't sue any website for the content posted by it's users.
Wrong and wrong. The second ruling in
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is great because it cover everything :
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Viacom had presented enough evidence against Google that the case shouldn't have been dismissed before trial.
[...]
But the Second Circuit also sided with Google on a key issue, ruling that the company couldn't be held liable based solely on the "general knowledge" that its users were infringing copyright.
[...]
The long-running lawsuit dates to 2007, when Viacom alleged that YouTube infringed copyright by allowing users to post tens of thousands of pirated clips. Google countered that it was protected by the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which broadly state that sites are immune from copyright infringement liability for material uploaded by users, as long as the sites remove the material upon request.
But those safe harbors have some exceptions, including one for companies that know they host pirated clips. Viacom contended that Google should be held liable -- on the theory that it knew of infringement in general on its site and didn't prevent it.
Hosting sites
have the legal obligation to remove content when they notified, and they do it (
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; interesting because it explain the process and also enforce fair use). They can also be sued if they don't comply to the removal order or don't comply to the
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.
Still, as long as they do as much as possible to prevent the sharing of copyrighted content, whatever if they know that a portions of their user share copyrighted content (which goes against the OCILLA), they are covered.
I said it, an all in one case.
Article 17 changes that. Now the copyright holders can sue PornHub, YouTube, etc. for the content posted by it's users. So they will have to block a lot of content in EU so they don't get sued.
Have youtube blocked a lot of content in the USA ? I doubt.
Will youtube block a lot of content in Europe ? I doubt even more, because there's nothing in the article 17 that extend the possibility to sue them. In fact they are now more protected, since parody are explicitly said as fair, while what they have to do to fight against copyright infringement is not explicitly wrote in a law.