European intermediary liability in copyright: A tort-based analysis

With the adoption and subsequent national implementation of the E-Commerce Directive’s safe harbour regime, the architecture set up in Europe for the civil liability of internet intermediaries for the copyright infringements of others has become two-tiered: at a first stage, it is necessary to examine whether a given intermediary attracts, in its pursuit of a certain activity, liability according to the standards ensconced in the Member States’ legislation. If so, in the second instance, the applicability of a safe harbour must be considered. As a result, although it provides a veneer of approximation by immunising intermediaries under certain circumscribed conditions, the Directive does not harmonise the underlying substantive liability norms which determine whether the safe harbours will be necessary or redundant. This leaves ample room for national divergences beyond the safe harbours. The resultant fragmentation strikes a discordant note in the otherwise highly harmonised area of copyright.
This book seeks to explore the possibilities for moving EU law forward towards a fully harmonised intermediary liability system in copyright. To this end, after a detailed dissection of the current European rules, it undertakes a comparative analysis of the national regimes in place in three EU Member States, those of England, France and Germany. Subsequently, the relationship between these rules and the national substantive tort principles that underlie them is examined. Ultimately, the book works its way towards proposing a model harmonised framework to govern the area: a truly substantive, truly European comprehensive, cogent, stable and effective analytical structure for intermediary accessory copyright liability.