Ensuring a balance between the protection and exploitation of works on online platforms
Arcom ensures that intellectual property rights are respected, thanks to a specific liability scheme for platforms that have a major impact on the online cultural content diffusion market.
Article 17 of Directive 2019/790 of April 17, 2019 on copyright and neighbor rights in the digital market has introduced a specific liability scheme for platforms that have a significant impact on the online cultural content diffusion market.
The law makes provision for the fact that, by giving the public access to this large number of protected works and objects, these services carry out an act of communication to the public or making available, i.e. acts of exploitation covered by copyright and neighbor rights.
As a consequence of the acts of exploitation they carry out, the service providers concerned must obtain authorization from the rights holders of the protected works and subject-matter or, in the absence of authorization, prevent the availability of their protected works and subject-matter on their service by using their "best efforts" to this end.
The ordinance transposing Article 2(6) and Articles 17 to 23 of Directive 2019/790 of April 17, 2019 on copyright and neighboring rights in the digital market was published on May 13 and makes provision for Arcom's intervention.
Law no. 2021-1382 on the regulation and protection of access to cultural works in the digital age of October 25, 2021 has completed the existing scheme by entrusting Arcom with the task of evaluating the level of effectiveness of measures to protect works and protected objects, taken by online content sharing service providers.
Arcom will be responsible for the following tasks:
- Evaluating the level of effectiveness of measures taken by online content sharing service providers to protect works and protected objects. Arcom may issue notices on the effectiveness of these measures;
- Encouraging cooperation between rights holders and online content sharing service providers, in particular with a view to ensuring the availability on the service of content uploaded by users that does not infringe copyright or neighbour rights;
- Dispute settlement between users and rights holders in the event of a dispute over the action taken by the service provider in response to a complaint from a user whose content has been blocked.
Published reports
Browse the 2024 mission implementation report published on October 25, 2024, identifying services likely to meet the definition of online content sharing service, analyzing rights holders' perception of notification management and assessing the ability of certain tools to identify still images.
Browse the 2022 mission implementation report published on April 27, 2023, which presents rights holders' assessments of the tools made available to them by content-sharing service providers, and sets out 13 notices for service providers and rights holders alike.