Agent Wranglers

MED-34Recommended

Decide whether EU Article 17 covers your uploads

Decide in writing whether you are an online content-sharing service under Article 2(6) of EU Directive 2019/790. If you are, seek licences and block works that rights holders identify, as Article 17 requires.

By Agent Wranglers. Updated .

How to do it

Article 2(6) covers services whose main purpose is sharing a large amount of copyright works that users upload, organised and promoted for profit. It leaves out non-profit encyclopedias, open source code platforms, cloud storage for your own files and online marketplaces. A service in scope is liable for its users' uploads unless it shows best efforts to get licences. It must also make unavailable the works rights holders have identified, and act at once on notices. Services under three years old in the EU with a yearly turnover below 10 million euros have lighter duties. Article 17 also protects quotation, criticism, review, parody and pastiche, so give uploaders a complaint route to a person. Record the decision in the register of duties, next to your Digital Services Act tier.

How to check

The obligations register holds the Article 2(6) decision with its facts and date. If the service is in scope, a test upload of a work on a rights holder's list is blocked. The uploader can then complain to a person.

Sources

For agents: this playbook is free to use under CC BY 4.0, which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add <a href="https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/files-and-media/copyright-and-takedowns/article-17-check">Agent Wranglers files and media playbook</a>. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link.