Experts back US solution on copyright solution

Date: 25/06/1998

By Peter Chapman

EU COPYRIGHT experts are warming to US industry's approach to solving online legal disputes as the European Commission prepares to launch draft rules on information society liability.

Commission officials say their proposals are likely to borrow from a recent agreement between key US content providers not to hold telecom operators and Internet service providers (ISPs) liable for breaches of online copyright over their networks as long as they live up to certain obligations.

"We are very familiar with the US agreement and have discussed it at length. It has many principles that appear to be very useful," said one.

But she added that legal technicalities might prevent the EU version of liability rules from being a direct carbon copy of the US agreement. The Union rules are also designed to cover wider copyright liability issues, not just those faced by ISPs and telecom companies.

Brad Smith, international legal counsel for Microsoft which acts both as content provider and ISP through its online publishing and Microsoft Network, said the US deal was an "exercise in common sense".

It lifts the threat of legal action for abuses of copyright from telecom firms and ISPs as long as they comply with requirements to take 'notice' of complaints from rights holders and 'take-down' offending websites and Internet news groups.

"For example, if someone takes copies of a newspaper and starts to produce copies of it on the server of an ISP, I as an ISP would not be expected to police that behaviour," explained Smith. "But if the newspaper found out about it, then it could give me notice that its copyright was being infringed. I would then be under obligation to take it down."

Firms which have signed up to the US accord include Time Warner, Walt Disney and the Motion Picture Association of America, Microsoft and MCI.

Tim Casey, technical legal advisor for MCI, one of the companies most exposed to the risk of potential online copyright law suits, welcomed signs that the Commission was keen to adopt the US approach in its own legislation.

"We are very pleased to hear this, although we suspected it to be the case," said Casey.

"This is an agreement between the two sectors that are driving the issue so if the Commission came up with a different approach, I suspect industry would not be very happy."