NetherlandsImplementatiewet richtlijn auteursrecht in de digitale eengemaakte markt (Act implementing the Directive on copyright in the digital single market)
Officially Auteurswet (Copyright Act), Articles 29c to 29e, Online Content-Sharing Services
In force since .
A notice and action rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Licensing, Disclosure
As of .
What it requires
- These rules reach a provider of an information society service whose main purpose, or one of whose main purposes, is to store and give the public access to a large amount of works uploaded by its users, which it organizes and promotes for profit. They do not reach non-profit online encyclopedias, non-profit educational or scientific databases, platforms for developing and sharing open-source software, providers of electronic communications services, online marketplaces, business-to-business cloud services or cloud services that let users store information for their own use.
- Seek authorization from the makers or their successors in title for the works your users upload to your service. Where you obtain it, it also covers your users' communication to the public, except users who act on a commercial basis or whose activity generates significant income.
- If you have no authorization, make best efforts to obtain it, make best efforts, in line with high industry standards of professional diligence, to keep unavailable the specific works for which rightholders gave you relevant and necessary information, and, on receiving a sufficiently substantiated notice from a maker or successor in title, quickly remove the notified work from your website or disable access to it and make best efforts to prevent the notified works from being offered again in the future. You are liable for infringement of the right of communication to the public unless you can show all three.
- On request, give makers or their successors in title adequate information about the use of works for which you obtained authorization, and about the measures you have taken to meet the best-efforts and notice duties and how they are carried out.
- Tell your users in your terms and conditions about the limitations on copyright, and do not let your cooperation with rightholders prevent the availability of user-uploaded works that do not infringe copyright, including works whose use falls under a limitation.
- Set up a complaint procedure through which users can complain about how the best-efforts and notice duties are applied, give an effective, quick decision that is subject to human review after hearing the rightholder concerned, and arrange that rightholders and users can appeal to an impartial dispute committee that gives an effective, quick decision subject to human review.
- If you have offered your service in the Union or the European Economic Area for less than three years and have annual turnover below EUR 10 million, you are not liable if you show best efforts to obtain authorization and quick removal of a notified work on a sufficiently substantiated notice. If your average monthly unique visitors, calculated on the previous calendar year, exceed 5 million, you must also show best efforts to prevent notified works from being offered again.
- Do not rely on the hosting exemption in Article 6(1) of the Digital Services Act for works you communicate to the public on the conditions of Articles 29c and 29d.
What this law does
Article 29c(1) provides that a provider of an online content-sharing service communicates to the public the works its users upload when it gives the public access to them. Where the provider has obtained authorization from the makers or their successors in title, Article 29c(1) extends it to communication to the public by users, unless those users act on a commercial basis or their activity generates significant income.
Under Article 29c(2), a provider without authorization is liable for infringement of the right of communication to the public unless it shows that it made best efforts to obtain authorization, made best efforts to keep specified works unavailable, and acted quickly on a sufficiently substantiated notice. Article 29c(4) requires the provider to give the makers or their successors in title, on request, adequate information about the measures taken and how they are carried out.
Article 29c(5) requires the provider to inform its users in its terms and conditions of the limitations on copyright. Article 29c(6) provides that applying the article does not lead to a general monitoring obligation. Article 29c(7) requires the provider to set up a complaint procedure through which users can complain about how the best-efforts and notice duties are applied.
Article 29c(9) defines such a provider as a provider of an information society service whose main purpose, or one of whose main purposes, is to store and give the public access to a large amount of works uploaded by its users, which it organizes and promotes for profit.
The same paragraph excludes non-profit online encyclopedias, non-profit educational or scientific databases, platforms for developing and sharing open-source software, providers of electronic communications services, online marketplaces, business-to-business cloud services and cloud services that let users store information for their own use.
Article 29d(1) frees a provider that has offered its service in the Union or the European Economic Area for less than three years and has annual turnover below EUR 10 million from liability if it shows best efforts to obtain authorization and quick removal of a notified work on a sufficiently substantiated notice.
Article 29d(2) adds, for such a provider whose average monthly unique visitors, calculated on the previous calendar year, exceed 5 million, the condition that it also made best efforts to prevent notified works from being offered again. Article 29e provides that Article 6(1) of the Digital Services Act does not apply where a provider communicates users' works to the public on the conditions of Articles 29c and 29d.
When LexLint raises it
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