Safeguarding User Freedoms in Implementing Article 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive: Recommendations from European Academics

The implementation of Art. 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market (C-DSM) Directive is ongoing. In particular, the multi-stakeholder dialogue under Art. 17(10) of the C-DSM Directive is happening as I write. To the end of promoting public interest in the implementation process, a group of European academics (including João Quintais, Stef van Gompel, P. Bernt Hugenholtz, Martin Husovec, Bernd Justin Jütte, Martin Senftleben and myself) has drafted a document with recommendations on user freedoms and safeguards included in Article 17 of the DSM Directive. The document has been edorsed by more than fifty academics already. Below you find a brief summary of the statement:

    On 17 May 2019 the new Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market was officially published (DSM Directive). Article 17 (ex-Article 13) is one of its most controversial provisions. Article 17(10) tasks the Commission with organising stakeholder dialogues to ensure uniform application of the obligation of cooperation between online content-sharing service providers (OCSSPs) and rightholders, and to establish best practices with regard to appropriate industry standards of professional diligence. In the discussion on best practices, the provision adds, “special account shall be taken, among other things, of the need to balance fundamental rights and of the use of exceptions and limitations.” This document offers recommendations on user freedoms and safeguards included in Article 17 of the DSM Directive – namely in its paragraphs (7) and (9) – and should be read in the context of the stakeholder dialogue mentioned in paragraph (10).

The statement is available here.

My own take at the final version of Art. 17, "Reforming the C-DSM Reform: a User-Based Copyright Theory for Commonplace Creativity", is also available here.

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