Geoff Taylor, CEO of the United Kingdom major label trade body BPI, calls the report “a lot like ‘greenwash, ‘” writing that Google “is still one of the key enablers of piracy on the planet”.
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While Google and YouTube have consistently reported how much they pay copyright holders, the music industry claims that the $2 billion it has received is not enough and that the Content ID process is inefficient.
The tech giant’s senior policy counsel Katie Oyama claimed: “The best way to battle piracy is with better, more convenient, legitimate alternatives”.
It writes that Content ID is responsible for 50 percent of revenue generated for the music industry on YouTube, and that over 99 percent of copyright claims on music are handled via Content ID.
The BPI added: “Despite its wonderful innovations in mapping the Earth and inventing driverless cars, Google hasn’t managed to implement a Content ID system that people can’t easily get around”.
“We have also provided consumers with easy-to-use platforms for finding licensed copies of their favorite content”.
In a statement, IFPI CEO Frances Moore responded: “Google has the capability and resources to do much more to tackle the vast amount of music that is being made available and accessed without permission on its platforms”.
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The company said it has also taken steps to prevent infringing links from appearing in Google search results. It’s true that Content ID hasn’t been completely accurate in the past; it erroneously flagged content that has been protected under fair use, such as Let’s Play videos that include gaming content owned by gaming companies. “Google’s search engine continues to direct internet users to unlicensed music on a large scale”. “Since 2012, Google has blacklisted more than 91,000 sites”.
