Liability for the transmission of digital content under new EU rules

Abstract

Objectives The development of new technologies is both a premise and a subject of changes that fundamentally affect the regulatory area of digital media. Current regulatory changes are directing the regulation of the digital market towards ensuring broadly understood cybersecurity. The aim of the article is to analyze the legal acts regulating the issue of liability for the transmission of digital content. The DSA, which came into force on February 17, 2024, was subjected to a detailed analysis. Material and methods The paper is based on observations and analyses of the legal status related to the cyberspace. Gathering this body of work and systematizing it allowed us to build a certain vision of the regulatory reality, which requires changes, in particular in thinking about cyberspace as a place free, devoid of any regulation. Results The paper analyses the basic acts of Polish and EU law regulating the issue of liability for the transmission of digital content. The study showed that the new regulation must guarantee an appropriate level of legal certainty for online service providers and improve coordination and cooperation between national authorities, including the EC. However, the most important are the interests of network users, recipients of digital services, who need transparency and a quick response. Conclusions The paper shows that content sharing service providers need to implement automatic content recognition tools in a large number of cases to filter the content that users upload and, if necessary, block some of it from being posted.However, it will be necessary to strike the right balance between the interests and expectations of those who report illegal content that should be removed and those who publish content, allowing them to object to the removal (counter-notice).

Keywords

• liability
• cybersecurity
• digital media
• digital content
• content provider
• illegal content