European UnionDSM Directive, Article 17(8) and (9) (Information for rightholders, and complaint and redress for users, of online content-sharing services)
Directive (EU) 2019/790, Arts. 17(8), 17(9)
In force since .
A transparency and process rule binding public and private bodies.
As of .
What it requires
- This Directive is addressed to the Member States (Article 32), which had to bring into force the measures necessary to comply with it by (Article 29(1)), so a service meets these rules through national implementing laws.
- An online content-sharing service provider is 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 organizes and promotes for profit-making purposes. Not-for-profit online encyclopedias, not-for-profit educational and scientific repositories, open source software-developing and sharing platforms, providers of electronic communications services, online marketplaces, business-to-business cloud services and cloud services that allow users to upload content for their own use are not such providers (Article 2(6)).
- If you provide an online content-sharing service, give rightholders, at their request, adequate information on the functioning of your practices for the cooperation referred to in Article 17(4) and, where you have concluded licensing agreements with rightholders, information on the use of the content those agreements cover (Article 17(8)).
- Put in place an effective and expeditious complaint and redress mechanism available to your users in disputes over the disabling of access to, or the removal of, works or other subject matter they uploaded; process complaints without undue delay, and subject decisions to disable access to or remove uploaded content to human review (Article 17(9)).
- Inform your users in your terms and conditions that they can use works and other subject matter under exceptions or limitations to copyright and related rights provided for in Union law (Article 17(9)).
- Member States must ensure that out-of-court redress mechanisms are available for the settlement of disputes, and that users have access to a court or another relevant judicial authority to assert the use of an exception or limitation to copyright and related rights (Article 17(9)).
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
A court or another relevant judicial authority in each Member State, to which Member States must ensure that users have access to assert the use of an exception or limitation to copyright and related rights (Article 17(9)).
What it reaches
Obligation class
Disclosure, Governance, Contract terms
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- All of
- Criteria
- 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
What this law does
The Directive binds the Member States, which had to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with it by .
Article 2(6) defines an online content-sharing service provider as 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 organizes and promotes for profit-making purposes.
The definition excludes not-for-profit online encyclopedias, not-for-profit educational and scientific repositories, open source software-developing and sharing platforms, providers of electronic communications services, online marketplaces, business-to-business cloud services and cloud services that allow users to upload content for their own use. Article 17(8) provides that the application of Article 17 is not to lead to any general monitoring obligation.
Article 17(8) requires Member States to provide that online content-sharing service providers give rightholders, at their request, adequate information on the functioning of their practices with regard to the cooperation referred to in paragraph 4 and, where licensing agreements are concluded, information on the use of content covered by the agreements.
Article 17(9) requires Member States to provide that online content-sharing service providers put in place an effective and expeditious complaint and redress mechanism that is available to users in disputes over the disabling of access to, or the removal of, works or other subject matter they uploaded. Complaints under that mechanism must be processed without undue delay, and decisions to disable access to or remove uploaded content are subject to human review.
Where rightholders request to have access to their specific works or other subject matter disabled or removed, they must duly justify the reasons for their requests. Article 17(9) requires online content-sharing service providers to inform their users in their terms and conditions that they can use works and other subject matter under exceptions or limitations to copyright and related rights provided for in Union law.
Article 17(9) also requires Member States to ensure that out-of-court redress mechanisms are available for the settlement of disputes and that users have access to a court or another relevant judicial authority to assert the use of an exception or limitation.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform.