ABSTRACT
On the online content market, platforms are both ‘the matchmakers and the taste-makers’: the content that attracts the highest amount of consumers is promoted – namely through algorithmic recommender systems – attracting even more consumers and drawing in even more creators of this so-called ‘formulaic’ content. This ‘network effect’ enables platforms to milk the creative ecosystem for its resources by monetizing the content they make available, only to push the risk associated with managing such a huge volume of content back onto rightholders. Such dynamics ultimately curtail the ‘risk-taking appetite’ of creators, which in turn leads to a decline in content diversity (ie quality) from which consumers, in the long term, will suffer.
The fallout of this business model has been the radical alteration of the value chain within this creative ecosystem at the expense of rightholders, otherwise known as the ‘value gap’. Certainly, the objective of protecting copyright and related rights, both online and offline, is the communication of national cultural heritage to the masses. In return, however, rightholders must be able to recover the reward for their creativity or investment. This article explores the role of the biggest online platforms with regard to copyright management and enforcement within the European Union, and how there is now a mismatch between the more progressive legislation and the somewhat out-dated approach of the European Court of Justice.
Taylor, Heather, Online Platforms: The New Brokers of Copyrights? An EU Perspective (January 24, 2021).
First posted 2021-04-28 15:30:17
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