European Union: EU Commission publishes proposal for DSM Copyright directive introducing content moderation obligations for online platforms

On 14 September 2016, the European Commission published a proposal for a Directive on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market. According to the proposal, an “online content-sharing service provider” represents an entity storing and offering public access to copyright-protected works for profit-making purposes. Under the Directive, “online content-sharing service providers” will have to obtain authorization from right holders for content protected by copyright to avoid liability. Specifically, platforms will need to demonstrate that they made efforts to obtain an authorisation for the copyright-protected content and remove unauthorised content after receiving a notification.