Google under Congressional fire about the way Content ID affects 'small' creators

By Emmanuel Legrand

Alphabet's Google has come under the scrutiny of a bipartisan group of US policy-makers regarding its efforts to curve copyright infringement on the platform through its Content ID system, which they claim puts smaller creator "at a significant disadvantage."

  In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, eight members of Congress — including Jerrod Nadler, chair of the Judiciary Committee at the House and the Committee's ranking member Doug Collins, as well as Senators Thom Tillis and Christopher A. Coons as chair and co-chair, respectively, of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Marsha Blackburn and Dianne Feinstein — wrote about their concern that "copyright holders with smaller catalogs of works cannot utilise Content ID, making it more difficult or impossible for them to effectively protect their copyrighted works from infringement and, ultimately, impacting their livelihoods."

  They continued: "We have heard from copyright holders who have been denied access to Content ID tools, and as a result, are at a significant disadvantage to prevent the repeated uploading of content that they have previously identified as infringing. They are left with the choice of spending hours each week seeking out and sending notices about the same copyrighted works, or allowing their intellectual property to be misappropriated."

  Senator Blackburn said she was concerned that Google's policy puts "talented creators, including Nashville’s songwriting community, are disproportionately at risk of infringement."

Content ID under the microscope

  The lawmakers have asked Pichai to participate in a roundtable with Congressional offices and members of the creative community to discuss the following questions and issues:

- In general, how does the Content ID technology work?
- Compared to other available mechanisms for rights holders to identify potentially infringing works on Google’s platforms, how much day-to-day involvement of rights holders is needed?    
- How do the user and Google work together to identify and block illegal material?
- To what extent is Content ID dependent upon user engagement and interaction?  
- Please describe generally which types of rights holders currently are permitted to use Content ID, including how Google assesses whether a rights holder owns a “substantial body of original material” and whether such material is “frequently uploaded.”      
- How often does a piece of content need to appear on YouTube in order to be considered a “frequently uploaded” work?
- Is “frequently uploaded” an absolute or relative measure?
- Please describe any terms and conditions related to the use of Content ID.
- Other than YouTube, on what Google platforms is Content ID used to identify and block infringing material? For example, do you use it to block the distribution of infringing material on Blogger, Google Photos, and Google Drive, among others? If not, do you plan to implement Content ID or similar safeguards on these platforms?
- Does Google plan to provide access to Content ID to a larger number of rights holders? If so, when? If not, what challenges prevent you from doing so?

  The letter closes by asking Pichai to respond by October 30th, 2019 with a date for this roundtable, which should take place "no later than the end of the 2019 calendar year."

> In related news, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel will gather on Sept. 24 to discuss the acquisition strategies of rival start-ups and by tech giants, such as Google, Facebook, Apple or Amazon, and determine if it is affecting competition, according to Reuters. Senator Mike Lee, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, said the Subcommittee "is interested in soliciting input from policy analysts, market participants, and other stakeholders on whether legislative action relating to such mergers is needed to ensure digital markets remain competitive." 

The ranking member on the panel, Democrat Amy Klobuchar added that the companies’ acquisitions “have raised serious competition issues.” Capitol Hill scrutiny of tech giants coincides with the Department of Justice's antitrust division broad investigation into major tech firms, to determine if they engage in anti-competitive practices. The Federal Trade Commission is also investigating Amazon and Facebook.

> Over 30 US state attorneys general plan to announce a probe into Alphabet’s Google for potential antitrust violations, according to a report from Reuters. The group of AGs, led by Texas' Ken Paxton, should announce the investigation on September 9. “We continue to work constructively with regulators, including attorneys general, in answering questions about our business and the dynamic technology sector,” Google representative Jose Castaneda told Reuters.