Filtered Futures

When: 19.09.2022
Where: Berlin and online
Banner of Filtered Futures showing a crowd from the back. With no text, plus Communia and GFF's logos.

COMMUNIA and Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte co-hosted the conference “Filtered Futures: Fundamental Rights Constraints of Upload Filters after the CJEU Ruling on Article 17 of the Copyright Directive” on September 19th, 2022, at Robert Bosch Stiftung in Berlin. The recording of the conference webstream is available below and through COMMUNIA’s Vimeo account.

The CJEU decision on Article 17 of the copyright directive has defined a framework for the use of automated content moderation. The Court considers filtering obligations compatible with the right to freedom of expression and information as long as they are limited to use cases that allow for a robust automated distinction between legal and illegal content. In the context of Article 17, upload filters may only be used by online platforms to block manifest infringements of copyright law. This judgement raises a host of important questions for the enforcement of copyright law as well as for the compatibility of upload filters with fundamental rights even beyond copyright law.

Opening Remarks

  • Susanne Zels (Robert Bosch Stiftung)
  • Felix Reda (Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte)

Session 1: Fragmentation or Harmonisation? The impact of the Judgement on National Implementations

  • Bernd Justin Jütte (​​University College Dublin): Imperatives for Implementing Article 17: The Importance of National Implementations
  • Finn Hümmer (Stockholm University): Implications from C-401/19 for National Transpositions under the Light of Freedom of Expression
  • Jasmin Brieske (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt): The Impact of the Enactment of the German OCSSP Act on Selected Online Platforms
  • Christina Angelopoulos (University of Cambridge): The National Implementations of Article 17 of the EU’s CDSM Directive
  • Chair: Paul Keller (COMMUNIA)

Session 2: Balancing Enforcement & Usage Rights in Practice

  • Natasha Mangal (University of Strasbourg): Regulating Creativity Online: Proposal for an EU Copyright Institution
  • Daniel Holznagel: Don’t Touch the Ceiling – Why We Should not Narrow the EU No-Monitoring-Obligation-Rules
  • Martin Husovec (London School of Economics): Mandatory Filtering Does Not Always Violate Freedom of Expression: Lessons from Poland v Council and European Parliament
  • Chair: Felix Reda (Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte)

Session 3: Beyond the Judgement: The Future of Freedom of Expression

  • Kevin O’Sullivan (Dublin City University): A New Conceptualisation of the ‘Essence’ of Fundamental Rights
  • Sabine Jacques (University of East Anglia): A Two-Tier System for Freedom of Expression
  • Till Kreutzer (iRights.Law): Towards a European Right to Remix (?) – On the New Pastiche Exception in the German Copyright Act
  • Chair: Teresa Nobre (COMMUNIA)
Rechtvaardigheid (Justitia)
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