IGF 2021 Lightning Talk #30 Digital creative market: how can we protect users and ensure freedom in light of the new EU Copyright Directive?

Time
Friday, 10th December, 2021 (14:35 UTC) - Friday, 10th December, 2021 (15:05 UTC)
Room
Ballroom A

Elena Tairova: Expert in digital strategy, data policy & regulation with +10 years of experience. Co-founder & CEO of Kelp.Digital.

Leila Iruzun: MSc in Organization & Business Economics, MIT Digital Transformation program. +5 years of experience in the field. Head of Business Operations at Kelp.Digital.

Speakers

Sylvie Fodor: Executive director of CEPIC, an international organization that brings together picture agencies and photo libraries in 20 countries across Europe, both within and outside the European Union.

Robert Herian: Senior Lecturer in Law and co-founder of Law, Information, Future, Technology (LIFT) research group & the Equity and Trusts Research Network (ERTN).

Daniel Maricic: A recognized expert in the IT field & a long-time photographer. CTO & Co-Founder of Kelp.Digital, founder of Anagolay Network.

Onsite Moderator

Elena Tairova

Online Moderator

Elena Tairova

Rapporteur

Leila Iruzun

Format

We are going to do a presentation, followed by a debate between the speakers, and encourage participants to ask questions that will be answered and discussed during the session

Duration (minutes)
30
Language

English

Description

This session will address the emerging regulation and current options available for content authenticity verification and its limitations. The talk will focus on how the implementation of the Art. 17 of the EU Copyright Directive will change the way content is used, shared, and sold. We will evaluate the consequences of using uploading filters for the creative economy and individual content creators in particular.

We believe that to resolve the present issues around Copyright regulation, policymakers need to ensure that required filtering does not lead to excessive upload prevention. The latest would jeopardize basic human rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

One way to resolve this is by developing a technical interoperable solution that will become a standard for content moderation in the digital creative market. If we are to make it possible to acquire (license) content peer-to-peer with a unified machine-readable proof that enables such content to be legitimately used in a certain way, we will be able to circumvent the issue of excessive upload prevention.

The implementation of this approach relies heavily on two pillars:

a. technical capabilities

b. policy & standardization

In terms of the technical capabilities, we will give an overview of the current State-of-Art, particularly verifiable digital statements for copyright & digital licensing. In terms of standardization, we will consider the possibilities of using existing metadata standards to create a flexible and scalable solution.

If carried out successfully, implementing the above approach will offset such side effects of upload filters as platforms' censorship and contribute to misinformation cut down (as it would be possible to trace the content back to the source). Furthermore, the approach could streamline the workflow for all the key parties involved: platforms, users, and regulators, creating an additional boost for the creative economy.

Key Takeaways (* deadline 2 hours after session)

With three experts giving a different perspective on how digital content creators, regulations, and technical community can join forces and shape the future of digital creative market in Europe. With the increment of the importance of digital copyrights, especially in light of the Art. 17 of the Copyright Directive, the speakers agreed on the necessity of developing technology to solve the present shortcomings.

Call to Action (* deadline 2 hours after session)

The key questions to be addressed: - Should the regulation be leading technological advancement? - Can technology advancment wait until regulations are approved and enforced to make its move on the market that is constantly changing? - How can we make sure laws and technologies collaborate towards a fairer creative economy for all digital creators while ensuring everybody's freedom of speech?

Session Report (* deadline 26 October) - click on the ? symbol for instructions

The discussion aimed to put together an integrated overview of the creative economy reality and lay the ground for the further cooperation.

With three experts giving a different perspective on how digital content creators, regulations, and technical community can join forces and shape the future of digital creative market in Europe.

With the increment of the importance of digital copyrights, especially in light of the Art. 17 of the Copyright Directive, the speakers agreed on the necessity of developing technology to solve the present shortcomings.

The key questions to be addressed:

  • Should the regulation be leading technological advancement?
  • Can technology advancement wait until regulations are approved and enforced to make its move on the market that is constantly changing?
  • How can we make sure laws and technologies collaborate towards a fairer creative economy for all digital creators while ensuring everybody's freedom of speech?

The speakers also agreed on the importance of transparency as an element to ensure trust in new copyright-related technology implementations.

From the technical point of view, transparency can be reached by having unique identifiers to ensure the authenticity and authorship of digital content. However, establishing standards for all kinds of cameras, smartphones, and other gears is a challenge.

Until today, current solutions focus on trying to prevent/restrict copyright infringement. Like Robert Herian said, "copyright owners need to identify infringement and report them in order to protect their content". According to Daniel, CTO of Kelp.Digital this approach needs to change. His suggestion is to solve the problem starting from its roots: implement a solution using standardized unique identifiers that verify authorship over the content.

Whether legislations might accept this approach as a way to have verifiable digital copyrights, is still an open debate.

Lastly, the speakers agreed that the main challenge around the proposed solution is how to ensure all camera gear and smartphone manufacturers follow one unified criterion for the metadata information standards. Can laws and regulations make it happen? It is yet to be seen.