Brussels, BELGIUM — The European Commission today presented its long-awaited Guidance on the implementation of Article 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. EU Member States have to transpose the Directive into national law by 7th June.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Senior Manager, Alex Maglione:
“We encourage EU Member States to preserve a workable liability regime for intermediaries as they implement the new Copyright Directive. A service provider, which is made primarily liable for copyright infringements, must be able to take steps to discharge this liability, otherwise this will ultimately lead to the demise of user-generated content services based in Europe.”
“We are concerned with the idea of a specific regime for ‘earmarked’ content. It is key that the application of Article 17 does not lead to any general monitoring obligation, and that it provides sufficient safeguards to protect freedom of expression and the providers’ right to conduct business.”
“We welcome that the Commission’s guidelines provide clarity on proportionality and best efforts and we hope EU Member States will safeguard these principles when transposing the Directive into national laws.”