Information Intermediaries' Liability for Online Copyright Infringement

Student: Novikova Alena

Educational Programme: Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law (Master)

Year of Graduation: 2017

The present work is dedicated to the analysis of information intermediaries' liability for online copyright infringement. During the last decade the liability and safe harbour provisions have given rise to many debates within the industry of right holders and information intermediaries. On the one hand, right holders suffer huge damages from illegal distribution of their content online. On the other hand, intermediaries' rights and lawful interests can also be damaged by the unfair and inadequate orders aimed at copyright protection. As long as Russian legal framework of intermediaries' liability is still gradually developing, the present analysis should explain whether Russian regulation achieves the balance between right holders' and intermediaries' interests. The first chapter describes the protection of copyright online, analyses the conflict-of-laws regulation and searches for the balanced Private International Law rules towards online copyright protection. The second chapter stipulates the classification of information intermediaries in the US and European Union and provides the thorough case law analysis. Safe harbours under the DMCA and E-commerce Directive are also explored in this chapter. The third chapter analyses the Russian regulation of information intermediaries' liability provisions, as well as the safe harbous provided under the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Finally, the comparative analysis shows that current Russian legal framework is not developed enough to guarantee the adequate protection of information intermediaries' rights and lawful interests.

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