How Europe Wants to Redefine Global Online Copyright Enforcement

Abstract

This book chapter discusses how since the early 2010s the Europen Union continuously deviated from the original notice and takedown safe harbour model championed by the United States thereby incrementally creating its own regulatory response to online copyright infringement. The article puts the Digital Single Market Directive, and its highly contentious Article 17 (formerly 13), in a broader context of new regulatory models that have been developed in the last decade. These models not only inspired the reform but will also continue to co-shape it and complement it in the years to come. The ultimate goal is to provide a reader with a high-level analysis of the current regulatory models, including of Article 17 DSMD, and to provide a concise overview of the developments which are likely to set the tone of the discussions also abroad. When this happens, it is always useful to understand the regulatory context in which the European reform took place.

Keywords: notice and takedown, DMCA, E-Commerce Directive, digital single market, DSM Directive, staydown, filtering, injunctions against intermediaries