Youtube agrees on royalty payments

The Estonian Authors' Society (EAS) concluded an agreement at the beginning of March with Youtube, which belongs to Internet giant Google, whereby in the future Estonian authors will receive, via EAS, a certain percentage of Youtube's Estonian advertising revenue, reports Postimees.

EAS board member Mario Kivistik said that it isn’t known yet what kind of money is involved, but based on earlier experiences it can be forecast that the amount will be lower than radio and TV fees. EAS will take 10 percent of the money to be paid by Google, and 90 percent will be distributed to authors based on the number of clicks.

EAS launched talks with Youtube four years ago and, since then, Youtube has shown general image ads when displaying videos by Estonian authors; the company should have paid a part of the turnover of that to EAS, Kivistik said. "Now the legal confusion has been solved, contracts have been signed and for a week now, when displaying Youtube videos, advertising targeted at Estonian audiences is shown," he said.

The authors should get the first fees, to be paid once a quarter, in September.