Sometimes called the YouTube Tax, Article 13 could require certain types of online services to take proactive steps to license copyrighted material or keep it off their services.
Recorded at Copyright & Technology 2019
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The world of intellectual property law is no less divided than anywhere else we look. In 2019 – and in fact, since the dawn of the Digital Age – the Copyleft are constantly tilting at the forces of Copyright. Information wants to be free. Information wants to be expensive.
Yet last summer, something remarkable happened. The European Parliament agreed – overwhelmingly, though after a very long period of lobbying and legislative horse-trading in Brussels and Strasbourg – to terms for the European Commission’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Nevertheless, Article 13 of the Directive – sometimes called the YouTube Tax – remains controversial, as it could require certain types of online services to take proactive steps to license copyrighted material or keep it off their services.
It will take years to figure out what types of technologies or enforcement schemes for Article 13 may be acceptable or required in EU Member States. This week at the annual Copyright & Technology Conference in New York, a panel of European lawyers made a head start on predictions for the impact of Article 13 – in Europe and far beyond the EU.
“The law will apply of the country where I seek my protection,” Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm, an Amsterdam-based attorney told CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “So, if I am in the Netherlands and somebody in the US has uploaded my protected content on YouTube, but it violates my rights in the Netherlands, I can sue that person directly in the Netherlands for an act that is not, in itself, contrary to US copyright law.”
Featured guests included –
- Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm, a partner of bureau Brandeis in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he specializes in digital copyright, the liability of intermediaries, privacy and free speech issues. He is also the author of a work of fiction. His debut novel ‘The Trial of the Century’ (“Het proces van de eeuw”) came out in 2011 and is currently running its seventh edition.
- Tom Frederikse, a partner at Clintons Solicitors in London, who specializes in Digital Media and technology-related issues, working with Clintons’ Commercial/Corporate, Music and Brands groups. With extensive practical experience in media and technology, he works on a wide range of commercial and media matters and regularly deals with IP issues including content licensing, music publishing/PROs, trademarks and data protection. Tom previously spent 15 years as a music producer/engineer, amassing a large discography.
- Jean-Baptiste Soufron, an attorney at Law at the Paris Bar, specializing in Media, Intellectual Property and Digital Law. Soufron was formerly General Secretary of the French National Digital Council as well as a Senior Advisor for Digital Economy in the cabinet of the French Minister of Economy and Finance. His other previous positions include Director of the think tank of Cap Digital, and Chief Legal Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation.
