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17(8)
The application of this Article shall not lead to any general monitoring obligation.
?
from ex-ante to ex-post
"it is not enough for the transposition and application of Article 17(7) to only restore legitimate content ex post, once it has been blocked. When service providers apply automated content recognition technologies under Article 17(4), on the basis of the relevant and necessary information provided by the rightholders, legitimate uses should also be considered at the upload of content"
automated filtering should be limited to ‘likely infringing uploads’
Rebecka Jonsson v. Les Editions de L’Avenir
Attunda District Court, 13 October 2016
YouTube video was embedded on the website of L'Avenir, a Belgian media company.
According to the court, it was “obvious” that L’Avenir had published the link with the intention of pursuing a profit.
Johnson had sent cease-and-desist letters
L’Avenir therefore not able to rebut the presumption
The court also ruled that, by failing to acknowledge the name of author, the defendant had also infringed the claimant’s moral right of attribution
Bangoura
Vs
"Even if the connection is significant, however, the case for assuming jurisdiction is proportional to the degree of damage sustained within the jurisdiction. It is difficult to justify assuming jurisdiction against an out-of-province defendant unless the plaintiff has suffered significant damage within the jurisdiction"
Court of Appeal for Ontario 2005
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/our-work/projects/world-intermediary-liability-map-wilmap
Dart
V.
No Liability, Even Upon Notice
No effect on IP law
(1) Treatment of publisher or speaker
(2) Civil liability
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of—
(A) any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected; or
(B) any action taken to enable or make available to information content providers or others the technical means to restrict access to material described in paragraph (1)
No effect on privacy law
(1)
had been informed that their platform provides access to infringing content;
(2)
could not in any case have been unaware that the platform provides access to infringements, given that a very large amount of infringing content was shared using the platform;
(3)
had expressly displayed on blogs and forums on the platform their purpose to make protected works available to the users;
(4)
encouraged users to infringe; and
(5)
operated for profit.
[2016] IECA 231
"Because the defendant is the company which profits - albeit indirectly - because it derives revenue from its subscribers who are engaged in this practice, it is the defendant who should, in my view, be primarily liable for the costs."
80%
imposing an obligation to implement a "Graduated Response Strategy" (GRS):
Step 1
R would furnish all relevant infringement
Step 2
AP would send 1st letter requesting to cease and desist.
Step 3
AP would send 2nd letter to its subscriber requesting to cease and desist.
Step 4
AP would send to the plaintiffs a notification that a subscriber account has been the subject matter of three such notifications.
Step 5
R, having been informed of the relevant IP addresses etc, could make a Norwich Pharmacal type application to ascertain the subscriber’s identity and address and the could then seek an order for the suspension and/or termination of the subscriber’s service.
V.
Sony Music
(Ireland)
“That would undermine the objective of EU legislation in the relatively abundant field of copyright, which is precisely to harmonise the scope of the rights enjoyed by authors and other rightholders within the single market. That is why the answer to the problems raised in the present case must, in my view, be sought rather in EU law.”
AG Szpunar
Case C-610/15, Ziggo (14 June 2017)
Not necessary that the link itself be provided “for financial gain”, e.g. through cost-per-click calculations.
It is instead sufficient that the link is provided on a website that is operated for financial gain, i.e. run with the intention to realising profits, irrespective of the commercial impact of the particular link.
(1) D was offering educational material via his website, therefore intended profit (2) D could not rebut the presumption due to notification
The applicant argued that imposing liability would infringe his fundamental rights. Court said that the CJEU had already struck the right balance.
LG Hamburg, Case no. 310 O 402/16,
18 November 2016 [47]-[48]
‘I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick them off the Internet’
GEMA
Vs
The act of making the work available to the public had been committed by the YouTube uploader, not by YouTube itself.
YT also had not ‘adopted’ the content as its own
(‘Zu-Eigen-Machen’, see BGH, marions-kochbuch.de, 12 November 2009, I ZR 166/07).
(1)
YouTube is a “service inclined to infringement”, but also has a business model “in the mainstream of society”
(2)
When YT receives notification of a clear infringement, not only take-down is necessary but also stay-down, incl. other infringements on the same work and other recordings
(3)
Word-based filter and Content ID necessary
Fundamental rights were not relevant
OLG Hamburg, 1 July 2015, 5 U 87/12
This Article shall not affect the possibility for a court or administrative authority, in accordance with Member States' legal systems, of requiring the service provider to terminate or prevent an infringement, nor does it affect the possibility for Member States of establishing procedures governing the removal or disabling of access to information.”
Art. 21(2) - 2. In examining the need for an adaptation of this Directive, the report shall in particular analyse the need for proposals concerning the liability of providers of hyperlinks and location tool services, "notice and take down" procedures and the attribution of liability following the taking down of content.
Privacy & Data
(1)
if platforms use automated decision making to restrict content,
(i)
they should flag at which step of the process algorithmic tools were used,
(ii)
be transparent in the processing of algorithms and of the data used to train them, (iii)
explain the logic behind the automated decisions taken, and
(iv)
also explain how users can contest their decisions.
(2)
the decision-making process should be subject to human control.
(3)
automated removal and blocking mechanisms should be subject to external audits by independent entities or by an EU oversight structure.
(4)
there should be clear accountability, liability and redress mechanisms to deal with potential harm resulting from the use of AI applications, automated decision-making and machine learning tools.
(5)
the DSA should impose upon DSPs an obligation to submit annual transparency reports.
‘online content sharing service provider’
means a provider of an information society service of which the main or one of the main purposes is to store and give the public access to a large amount of copyright-protected works or other protected subject matter uploaded by its users, which it organises and promotes for profit-making purposes.
BUT NOT
Providers of services, such as not-for-profit online encyclopedias, not-for-profit educational and scientific repositories, open source software-developing and-sharing platforms, providers of electronic communications services as defined in Directive (EU) 2018/1972, online marketplaces, business-to-business cloud services and cloud services that allow users to upload content for their own use, [...].
(1)
Complaint and Redress Mechanism
(cooperation cannot result in unavailability of lawful content)
(1)
(4)
Public Interest Safegards
Directly Liable
(3)
provide adequate information to rightholders on functioning of OCSSP practices
(2)
inform users in T&Cs they can use protected content under exceptions and limitations
(2)
made best efforts to ensure the unavailability of protected content
(1)
made best efforts to secure a licence**
(3)
(2)
Secure a Licence
Otherwise, OCSSP are liable, UNLESS
ineligible for the liability exemption
(4)
made best efforts to prevent future uploads**
(3)
acted expeditiously, upon receiving sufficiently substantiated notice to take down content**
Limitations
(a)
service available in the EU for less then 3 years and (1,3)
(b)
with an annual turnover below €10M (1,3) and
(c)
average number of monthly visitors above 5M (1,3,4)
In order to ensure the functioning of any licensing agreement, information society service providers storing and providing access to the public to large amounts of copyright protected works or other subject-matter uploaded by their users should take appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure protection of works or other subject-matter, such as implementing effective technologies. This obligation should also apply when the information society service providers are eligible for the liability exemption provided in Article 14 of Directive 2000/31/EC.
called to adopt effective voluntary ‘proactive measures to detect and remove illegal content online’ by using automatic detection and filtering technologies (3.3.2)
"economic impacts are mostly assessed from a qualitative point of view, considering how the different policy options would affect the negotiations between those creating or investing in the creation of content and those distributing such content online. The limited availability of data in this area [. . .] did not allow to elaborate a quantitative analysis of the impacts of the different policy options." (p. 136)
Member States shall ensure that authors receive an appropriate share of the additional revenues press publishers receive for the use of a press publication by information society service providers
Non
Retroactive
20 March 2018
enable their subscribers who are temporarily present in a Member State to access and use the online content service in the same manner as in the Member State of residence
Online services such as
(1) video-on-demand platforms (such as Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime, Mubi, Chili TV);
(2) online TV services (such as Viasat's Viaplay, Sky's Now TV, Voyo)
(3) music streaming services (such as Spotify, Deezer, Google Music) or
(4) game online marketplaces (such as Steam, Origin).
“we are disappointed to see that the proposals are not grounded in any solid scientific (in particular, economic) evidence.”
General Monitoring
Specific Monitoring
key weakness of Article 17 would be the absence of measures other than upload filters to effectively comply with the ‘best efforts’ obligation
what “technically possible” and “reasonable.”
(1)
precautions against clearly noticeable infringements—such as blatant counterfeit items—reasonable
(2)
it would be unreasonable a filtering obligation questioning the business model of the intermediary.
(3)
manually checking and visually comparing each product offered in an online auction against infringement—which was not clear or obvious would be unreasonable.
(4)
obligations are unreasonable if due to the substantial amount of products offered, the platform’s business model would be endangered
“Kerntheorie”, i.e. infringements similar in their core (Kern)
trigger a duty to review & notice-and-stay-down
‘consideration must be given to the fact that the defendant participates in the sale of the pirate goods in the form of the commission payable […] Whenever the defendant's attention has been drawn to a clear infringement of rights not only is it obliged to block access to the specific offer […], it must also ensure that such trade mark infringements will as far as possible not occur in the future. […] The defendant is obliged to react to these cases by subjecting offers of Rolex watches to a special examination.’
‘A business that, like the defendant, operates a platform on the internet for third-party auctions cannot reasonably be expected to examine every offer for sale for a possible infringement of rights before publication on the internet. Such an obligation would jeopardise the entire business model.’
Remedies:
(1)
expeditious removal;
(2)
word filter;
(3)
subsequent manual reassessment for the avoidance of over-blocking;
(4)
general “Marktbeobachtungspflicht”, i.e. market monitoring duty through Google, Facebook or Twitter for illegal links to its service
NTD
R’s business model not a priori designed to facilitate infringement, i.e. deserving of protection,
but
R increased risk of the illegal use of its services, i.e. significantly facilitated copyright infringement.
As a result it had lost its neutrality.
Professional but “offensive and vulgar” rather than hate speech
(1)
a duty could only arise once R made aware of a clear infringement through notification.
(2)
Once notification received the provider can not simply rest at deleting existing infringing files, but must go further and perform searches for future infringements of the notified content, as well as take all reasonable measures to make sure users could not proceed with such infringements in the first place, as long as these did not threaten Rapidshare’s business model.
(3)
This could include automatic word filters supplemented by subsequent manual controls.
Non Professional (Blog)
(1)
In a situation of higher than-average
risk of defamation or hate speech,
(2)
if comments from non-registered users are allowed,
(3)
a professionally managed and commercially based
Internet news portal
should exercise the full extent
of control at its disposal and must go beyond automatic keyword-based filtering or ex-post notice-and-take-down procedures to avoid liability
NTD
BGH, 12 July 2012, I ZR 18/11
“[d]defamatory and other types of clearly unlawful speech, including hate speech and speech inciting violence, can be disseminated like never before, worldwide, in a matter of seconds, and sometimes remain persistently available online.”
cost of enforcement
“given that the internet service provider is an inevitable actor in any transmission of an infringement over the internet between one of its customers and a third party, since, in granting access to the network, it makes that transmission possible ( . . . ), it must be held that an internet service provider ( . . . ) is an intermediary whose services are used to infringe a copyright or related right within the meaning of Article 8(3) of Directive 2001/29.”
"[an injunction] constrains its addressee in a manner which restricts the free use of the resources at his disposal because it obliges him to take measures which may represent a significant cost for him.”
Articles 11(1)(ii), 11bis(1), 11ter(1)(ii), 14(1) and 14bis(1)
Right of communication to the public
the authors of literary works, artistic works, dramatic and dramatico-musical works, musical works and cinematographic works
communication to the public by wire, communication to the public by wireless means & communication to the public by loudspeaker or analogous instruments, broadcasting, rebroadcasting
Intermediary Liability
C-494/15
“Nor can the intermediary be required to exercise general and permanent oversight over its customers. By contrast, the intermediary may be forced to take measures which contribute to avoiding new infringements of the same nature by the same market-trader from taking place.”
Broad Notion of Intermediary
Delta Center
Vs
What?
Art. 14 applies to ISPs who do not play an active role that give it knowledge or control over the data stored
but not an active monitoring of all the data of each of its customers in order to prevent any future infringement
The intermediary must be neutral
Adwords
injunctions ex Art 11 Dir. 04/48/EC to take measures that contribute not only to bringing to an end infringements committed through that marketplace, but also to preventing further infringements would be available
ISP can be ordered (injunction) to suspend the perpetrator of the infringement of intellectual property rights in order to prevent (1) further infringements of that kind (2) by the same seller (3) in respect of the same trade marks
(Keyword=Trademark)
the operator has provided assistance which entails, in particular, optimising the presentation of the offers for sale in question or promoting those offers, it must be considered not to have taken a neutral position between the customer-seller concerned and potential buyers but to have played an active role
The mere facts that (1) Adwords is subject to payment, (2) Google sets the payment terms, or (3) provides general information to its clients do not deprive from the liability exemption
BSkyB
Vs
"the ordinary principle is that unless there are good reasons for a different order an innocent intermediary is entitled to be indemnified by the rights-holder against the costs of complying with a website-blocking order"
ICANN-Registry Agreement (2013) 2.17 Specification 11 (requiring registry operators to include in their contracts with registrars a provision requiring registrars to include in their contracts with registrants “a provision prohibiting Registered Name Holders from […] piracy, trademark or copyright infringement […] and providing [...] consequences for such activities including suspension of the domain name.”
ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement (2013) 3.18.
What is communication to the public?
(A)
Recital 27: The mere provision of physical facilities for enabling or making a communication does not in itself amount to communication within the meaning of this Directive.’
(B)
Recital 23: ‘This Directive should harmonise further the author's right of communication to the public. This right should be understood in a broad sense covering all communication to the public not present at the place where the communication originates. This right should cover any such transmission or retransmission of a work to the public by wire or wireless means, including broadcasting. This right should not cover any other acts.’
Member States shall provide for the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit the making available to the public, (a) by wire or wireless means, (b) in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them:
(a)
for performers, of fixations of their performances;
(b)
for phonogram producers, of their phonograms;
(c)
for the producers of the first fixations of films, of the original and copies of their films;
(d)
for broadcasting organisations, of fixations of their broadcasts, whether these broadcasts are transmitted by wire or over the air, including by cable or satellite.
Intra-copyright solutions
Why not primary liability?
When is one person liable for a copyright infringement where the material act of infringement was performed by somebody else?
(i)
(ii)
(aka accessory liability, indirect liability, third party, i.e. cases where the defendant is held liable for the infringement of somebody else)
esp. intermediary liability
‘broadcasting’
‘making available’
Each member of the public at a time and place of their own choosing
for all members of the public simultaneously
‘linear transmissions’ or
‘push services’
‘on-demand’ or
‘pull’ services or
‘non-linear’ transmissions
Conditions
Deep Linking
Hyperlinking
an ‘act of communication’, as it ‘affords users of the [site with the hyperlink] direct access’ to the works’
SGAE v. Rafael Hoteles, C-306/05
Is linking communication to the public?
Strict Liability v. Negligence Standards
Linking
(7 Mar)
2013
(24 Nov)
2011
(4 Oct)
2011
‘[W]here it is established that [the linker] knew or ought to have known that the hyperlink he posted provides access to a work illegally placed on the internet, for example owing to the fact that he was notified thereof by the copyright holders, it is necessary to consider that the provision of that link constitutes a “communication to the public”’
‘[W]hen the posting of hyperlinks is carried out for profit, it can be expected that the person who posted such a link carries out the necessary checks to ensure that the work concerned is not illegally published on the website to which those hyperlinks lead, so that it must be presumed that that posting has occurred with the full knowledge of the protected nature of that work and the possible lack of consent to publication on the internet by the copyright holder. In such circumstances, and in so far as that rebuttable presumption is not rebutted, the act of posting a hyperlink to a work which was illegally placed on the internet constitutes a ‘communication to the public’
General Principles of Private (Tort) Law
(26 April 2017)
2006
(7 Dec)
2012
(15 Mar)
2011
(12 Oct)
Case C-527/15,
Does a link to materials that the copyright holder DID NOT authorize infringe communication to the public?
May the Member States give wider protection to the exclusive right of authors by enabling ‘communication to the public’ to cover a greater range of acts than provided for in Article 3(2) of the Information Society Directive?
Conditions
Committee on Internet Violations of Intellectual Property (CIVIP)
“a teaspoon solution to an ocean problem.”