PolandUstawa o prawie autorskim i prawach pokrewnych, Online Content-Sharing Service Providers
In force since .
A notice and action rule binding private bodies.
- Private right of action
- Yes
- Enforcement body
- Courts hearing a rights holder's civil claims under article 79 of the Copyright Act.
- Obligation class
- Licensing, Disclosure
As of .
What it requires
- Treat the access you give to a work a user posted as your own public communication of that work: get the rights holder's authorization, or be able to show the conditions that avoid liability for infringement.
- To avoid liability for a work communicated without authorization, show that you made best efforts to obtain authorization, made best efforts to prevent access to the work where the rights holder gave you the relevant and necessary information, and acted promptly on a duly substantiated request to block or remove it and, where the rights holder gave you that information, made best efforts to prevent access to it in the future.
- If your service has been available in the European Union or the European Economic Area for less than three years and your annual turnover is no more than 10 million euro, show only best efforts to obtain authorization and prompt action on a duly substantiated block or removal request; if your average monthly visitors in the previous calendar year exceed 5 million, also show best efforts to prevent access once the rights holder has given you the information.
- Do not let cooperation with rights holders make lawfully posted works unavailable, in particular works used under the permitted-use exceptions, and tell the user promptly each time you block access to or remove a work they posted.
- On a rights holder's request, give information on how you cooperate with rights holders and on the use of the works you are authorized to communicate, as needed to set the remuneration due.
- Give users a free, electronic complaint route for blocked or removed works; decide each complaint without undue delay on the basis of the complaint and the rights holder's information; restore access promptly where the complaint is justified, including where the work was posted with the rights holder's consent or under the permitted-use exceptions; give a written, reasoned answer where you reject a complaint; and do not reject a complaint by automated means.
- Do not identify individual users or process their personal data in carrying out these steps unless other law provides otherwise, and tell users the conditions of using the service, including the possibility of using works under the permitted-use exceptions.
What this law does
Article 22(1) treats a provider of online content-sharing services that gives the public access to a work a user posted as itself communicating that work to the public.
Article 22(2) makes the provider liable for copyright infringement where it communicated the work without the rights holder's consent, unless it shows it made best efforts to obtain consent, made best efforts to prevent access to the work where the rights holder gave it the relevant and necessary information, and acted promptly on a duly substantiated request to block or remove the work and, where the rights holder gave it that information, made best efforts to prevent access to the work in the future.
A provider whose services have been available in the European Union or the European Economic Area for less than three years and whose annual turnover does not exceed 10 million euro must show only best efforts to obtain consent and prompt action on a request to block or remove, with the further duty, once its average monthly visitors in the previous calendar year exceed 5 million, to show best efforts to prevent access where the rights holder gave it the information.
An online content-sharing service provider is a service provider whose main purpose is storing and giving the public access to a large number of works posted by users, organized and promoted for profit, and the definition excludes non-profit online encyclopedias, scientific and educational repositories, open-source software platforms, electronic communications providers, online marketplaces, and business cloud and cloud computing services that let users upload content for their own use.
The provider must let users complain by electronic means when access to a work is blocked or the work is removed. A complaint is free of charge and is decided without undue delay on the basis of the information in it and the rights holder's requests. A complaint may not be rejected as unfounded by automated means. Article 22(7) imposes no general duty to monitor whether the public communication of a work a user posted is lawful.
Article 22(8) withholds the liability exclusions from a provider whose main purpose is to carry out or facilitate copyright infringement. Paragraph 3 of article 22(1) now excludes article 14 of the Act on the Provision of Services by Electronic Means, the hosting exclusion, from that public communication. From that paragraph excludes Article 6 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 instead.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform.