Dirk Visser on copyright and platform liability YouTube

Any operator of an internet platform who “knows or ought to know that protected content in general is illegally made available to the public through its platform by its users” must “take the appropriate technical measures” that would require a normally diligent economic operator in his situation can be expected to credibly and effectively combat copyright infringements on this platform,” writes Visser.

This is apparent from the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 22 June 2021, ECLI: EU: C: 2021: 503 (YouTube & Cyando), in two joined cases of a composer against YouTube and of publisher Elsevier against the provider of the storage and sharing platform ‘Uploaded’. This raises the question of what those ‘appropriate technical measures’ are. In this regard, the Court notes that YouTube has “various technical provisions” [heeft] taken to prevent and end copyright infringements on its platform, such as in particular a report button and a special alert procedure to identify and remove illegal content, as well as a content monitoring program and content recognition software to facilitate such content identify and detect. It thus appears that this operator has taken technical measures to combat copyright infringements on its platform in a credible and effective manner’ (paragraph 94).’

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