Research On Copyright Content Filtering Obligation Of Internet Service Providers

Combined with the actual situation of copyright management,China should upgrade the passive duty of care of ISPs from "notice and takedown" rule to the copyright content filtering duty with the connotation of "notice-comprehensive and continuous filtering".This obligation does not require Internet service providers to review the copyright of all works uploaded by users in advance,and in fact it still belongs to the category of duty of care.The filtering process is that the right holder makes a filtering request to the network service provider,and the service provider will include the work into the filtering system after receiving the request.The system will identify and compare the content,screen out the infringing content for processing,and keep filtering to prevent the uploading of infringing content.With the maturity of copyright content filtering technology,many companies have started to adopt filtering technology to protect authors from copyright infringement in industry practice.The obligation of the proposed mainly because of the existing " notice and takedown " rule is difficult to deal with the current phenomenon of infringement of copyright that exist in the cyberspace,infringement of copyright holder against the high cost and low efficiency,strong timeliness works if found infringing content,such as those to notify the network service provider to delete,has lost rights protection effect.And rules of the "red flag" as the premise of "notice and takedown" rule,original intention is to prevent the network service provider to the infringement behavior that particularly evident.But from the point of judicial explanation and practice,has gradually developed into network service provider’s duty of care,and in accordance with the relevant judicial precedents,found that the court a duty of care for the Internet service providers have higher expectations.Hope this kind of operators can deal with repeated infringement with reasonable measures,and even achieve the effect of infringement prevention.The copyright content filtering obligation makes this expectation possible.This system can rebalance the interest relationship between Internet service providers and rights holders,and give full play to the "gatekeeper obligation" of Internet service providers in copyright governance.Attempts to legislate copyright content filtering obligations of ISPs have been made outside the region.The European Union with its own rich experience of copyright collective management and boost European Internet enterprise development goals,establish network service provider in the form of legislation of copyright content filtering obligation,to force Internet service providers do your utmost to obtain work authorization in advance,matter to prevent infringement,afterwards the copyright people notice to remove all infringing content and prevent repeated infringement.After many discussions,the US Congress decided to amend the " notice and takedown " rule to replace the copyright content filtering obligation.But there is no denying that both American and EU legislatures have decided that “notice and takedown”rule are no longer suitable for today’s Internet.The copyright content filtering obligation with the connotation of "notify-comprehensive and continuous filtering" is a "local choice" suitable for China’s Internet copyright governance after absorbing excellent experience from outside China and combining with China’s national conditions.At present,requiring Internet service providers to remove a large number of infringing content from the platform can only rely on administrative means,and the copyright content filtering obligation as a new obligation is not clear legal norms.However,by reconciling with the existing laws and regulations,the obligation of copyright content filtering can be regarded as a new option for the right holders to protect their rights.The existing definition of Internet service providers has been unable to adapt to the emergence of new subjects.Internet service providers that undertake the obligation of filtering copyright content should be able to store the information uploaded by users,and the information can be spread under the services provided by network technical service providers,so as to exclude the suppliers providing basic communications or simple technical services.At present,a variety of filtering methods will lead to the difference of filtering results.Considering the control of filtering cost and the operability of filtering,the technical standards of copyright filtering can be incorporated into the national standard system,and the content standard setting should be as loose as possible to prevent excessive filtering.On the basis of the unified legitimate database,the copyright monitoring center is established by the way of the National Copyright Administration organ,which collects and distributes users’ filtering demands to corresponding Internet service providers,so as to reduce the cost of Internet service providers and right holders.In addition,the inherent characteristics of computer algorithms will inevitably lead to error filtering,while the algorithm black box makes users unable to grasp the process,difficult to judge and supervise.In order to avoid damage to users’ freedom of expression,full attention should be paid to the protection and relief of users’ rights and interests.The combination of machine filtering and human review can help Internet companies better shoulder their social responsibilities,and the public can raise their awareness of authenticity.This paper will discuss the legal nature,rationality,overseas experience,realistic dilemma and countermeasures of copyright content filtering obligation of Internet service providers.