Tilburg Law School Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society (TILT) Master Law & Technology (LL.M) Master Thesis Liability of Internet Society Service Providers and the (upcoming) role of content recognition technologies Name: Romy van Limpt ANR: 678380 SNR: U1254490 Supervisor: Mr. Ir. M.H.M. Schellekens Second supervisor: S. de Conca Table of Contents Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. 2 List of abbreviations ......................................................................................................... 3 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 4 1.1. Background ..................................................................................................................................4 1.2. Research questions .......................................................................................................................6 1.3. Methodology .................................................................................................................................7 1.4. Structure .......................................................................................................................................7 2. Terminology and Intermediary Liability ................................................................. 8 2.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................8 2.2. Internet Society Service Providers .............................................................................................9 2.3. Intermediary liability – current legal framework ...................................................................10 2.3.1. Liability exemptions ............................................................................................................11 2.3.2. No general obligation to monitor .........................................................................................14 2.4. Copyright enforcement ..............................................................................................................15 2.4.1. Notice and Take Down ........................................................................................................15 2.4.2. Content Recognition Technologies ......................................................................................17 2.5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................21 3. Intermediary Copyright Liability and Compatibility .......................................... 22 3.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................22 3.2. The European Digital Single Market .......................................................................................22 3.2.1. New EU Copyright Directive ...............................................................................................23 3.2.2. Practical consequences .........................................................................................................26 3.3. Fundamental compatibility .......................................................................................................29 3.3.1. Freedom to conduct a business ............................................................................................29 3.3.2. Freedom of expression and information ..............................................................................32 3.3.3. Right to protection of personal data .....................................................................................33 3.4. Fundamental restrictions ..........................................................................................................36 3.5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................38 4. Intermediary Copyright Enforcement in the future ............................................. 39 4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................39 4.2. Vertical intermediary liability approach .................................................................................39 4.2.1. Fair balance test ...................................................................................................................40 4.3. Compatible copyright enforcement system .............................................................................42 4.4. Notice and Action .......................................................................................................................44 4.4.1. Notice and Notice System ....................................................................................................45 4.4.2. Notice Wait and Take Down System ...................................................................................46 4.4.3. Notice and Stay Down system .............................................................................................47 4.5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................48 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 49 Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 52 2 List of abbreviations AG: Advocate General CDA: Communications Decency Act Charter: Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union CRTs: Content Recognition Technologies DMCA: Digital Millennium Copyright Act (US) DSMS: Digital Single Market Strategy DSM: Digital Single Market EC: European Commission ECHR: European Convention on Human Rights ECtHR: European Court of Human Rights EP: European Parliament ECJ: European Court of Justice EU: European Union InfoSoc: Information Society ISP: Internet Service Provider ISSP: Information Society Service Provider NN: Notice and Notice (system) NSD: Notice and Stay Down (system) NTD: Notice and Take Down (system) NWTD: Notice Wait and Take Down (system) SLA: Second Level Agreement UCC: User Created Content UMG: Universal Music Group WP: Working Party 3 1. Introduction 1.1. Background Online service providers are playing an important role in the economic and social life of today. Think of search engines, e-commerce platforms, price comparison websites and social media. The providers are enabling information to consumers and creating interactions between users. The E-commerce Directive 1 makes a beginning with regulating online service providers by defining service providers in article 2(b) as ‘any natural or legal person providing an information society service’. Article 1(2) of the Technical Standards Directive 2 further defines these Information Society Service Providers (ISSPs), or intermediary service providers3. The article states that an Information Society Service is ‘any service normally provided for remuneration, at a distance, by electronic means and at the individual request of a recipient of services’. With the growing importance of service providers and the amount of information and data on them, it is hard for the creators of copyright protected work to enforce and license their rights. In addition, it is difficult to seek remuneration for the online distribution of their works. 4 Copyright gives exclusive rights to the rightholders in order to protect their work and gain some income. One of the exclusive rights, is the right to communicate to the public, which means online sharing and disclosure of the protected work to the public.5 Usually, there is no agreement between the user and rightholder or between the platform and the rightholder when someone uploads copyright protected work on the platform. The options for the rightholders are mostly requesting an injunction6 or notifying the online platform to take down the content. The latter, called the Notice and Take Down (NTD) procedure, is provided in article 14(2) of the E- Commerce Directive. The ISSP takes down or prevents access to the information or activity once 1 Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (E-Commerce Directive), OJ L178/1. 2 Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (Technical Standards Directive), OJ L204/37. 3 Section 4 E-Commerce Directive. 4 European Commission, ‘Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market’ COM (2016) 593 final, p. 3. 5 Art. 3(1) Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related right in the information society (InfoSoc Directive), OJ L167/10. 6 Ibid, art. 8. 4 notified about illegal content on their services. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirms that the procedure should be followed when a sufficiently precise and substantiated notice is sent to the ISSP.7