EU's proposed copyright reforms to hit YouTube and Google News

Websites such as YouTube, owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc, have been able to avoid copyright issues by claiming its content originates from its users, but EU officials plan to introduce measures to make the practice more difficult.

The music industry has long been critical of YouTube, which has more than a billion monthly users, and other sites for not paying enough for access to top artists and groups' content.

Under the European Commission's proposals, free music websites will need to agree licensing deals with rights-holding record companies if they play an active role in the distribution of the video or music content, such as by “optimising the presentation” of the content via lists and recommendations.

Google has previously argued that record labels benefit from the millions of viewers YouTube provides, who otherwise would be unlikely to pay for music.

YouTube creates revenue by selling advertising on its content pages, and music industry representatives in the UK have said they are not getting a fair share of the profits made from the videos posted.

A recent draft of the EC proposals said that the past few years has seen websites offering user-uploaded content “flourish" and "become main sources of access to content online", which affects musicians and record companies’ ability “to get an appropriate remuneration for it”.

The music industry has struggled badly in the last decade and a half, relinquishing 60% of its value since the turn of the millennium. Similar calls for copyright reform in the US, but regulators are yet to act on the issue, despite conducting a review into the practice.

As flagged last month, the new copyright laws are also set to give new rights to news organisations who will be able to demand licenses for the use of small parts of its news.

Google will also be hit by this regulation as it aggregates thousands of news items on its Google News bar.