Leading German copyright lawyer assesses existing EU OSP liability regimes

28 June 2018

Jan Bernd Nordemann, a leading copyright lawyer in Germany, has published an assessment of existing OSP liability regimes in EU law, in light of the proposed changes created by article 13 (available via Kluwer Copyright Blog here). Through an analysis of existing duties of care under the eCommerce Directive, Nordemann concludes that “a duty to prevent the availability of protected works is [already] a necessary part of copyright liability law”. Through an analysis of legislative provisions and case law, they conclude that such an obligation exists (albeit differentiated) even for passive hosts (subject to the prohibition of general monitoring), with stricter, primary liability applying to more active hosts.