Earlier today the Court of Rome issued an important decision around ISP liability limitation, copyright and video hosting. It reaffirmed that web platforms are not liable for content uploaded by their users and found - referring to the ECJ ruling in the SABAM case, and the European Union’s E-Commerce Directive - that web platforms do not have to monitor user uploads for copyright-infringing material, nor prevent future infringements by users.
The background to this ruling is a case brought last summer against Google by RTI, a subsidiary of the Mediaset Group. RTI sued Google for copyright infringement because a web portal, hosted on Blogger, was allegedly streaming football matches broadcast on RTI's TV channels.
Today, the Court of Rome rejected RTI’s claim because - following notification to Google - the allegedly infringing content was removed from Blogger. The Court found that any other interpretation would be contrary to the European Union’s E-Commerce Directive.
Today’s ruling is important because it further clarifies the rules on liability online. But it’s also clear that copyright infringement is a serious matter - and its something we take very seriously. We invest heavily in technology to fight piracy; earlier this year we launched four new initiatives to tackle copyright infringement online, including a range of tools to make it easier and faster for rightsholders to report infringing material - and get it removed from our platforms quickly.
It’s important that right holders and intermediaries work together. Without rightsholder cooperation it is impossible for a platform like Blogger to know whether an item has been uploaded with or without a rightsholder’s permission. Today’s decision re-affirms this principle.
Posted by Marilù Capparelli, Italian Senior Legal Counsel
No comments :
Post a Comment
You are welcome to comment here, but your remarks should be relevant to the conversation. To keep the exchanges focused and engaging, we reserve the right to remove off-topic comments, or self-promoting URLs and vacuous messages