The European Parliament recently passed Digital Services Act (DSA). This law includes ways for European Union countries to fight digital piracy and other crimes
Under the new law, platforms are more responsible for their content. These include illegal content posted on, sold through, or otherwise spread through their sites. The measure’s goal is to stop pirated content and hold platforms more accountable for spreading false information.
The Federation of European Publishers (FEP) praised the passing of the new law. Still, it said it doesn’t go far enough to stop illegal and pirated books. Most of the time, these books are back on the platforms as soon as you remove them . ‘For the book sector, and publishers, in particular, the fight against online book piracy is a constant and tedious task, where pirated books must be removed almost manually while operating on a massive scale,’ said the FEP. He added that it is especially hard for small and medium-sized publishers.
FEP president Peter Kraus vom Cleff said: ‘Europe is showing once again its leadership and that abuses from online services will no longer be tolerated.’ ‘Data is the life-blood of online competition, and gatekeepers will no longer be allowed to deprive publishers. Data derived from our works wont be weaponized to their advantage.’
Kraus vom Cleff added, however, that the DSA ‘does not include stronger tools to fight illegal content, such as a fair notice-and-stay-down mechanism.’ ‘The DSA can only be a first step which the European Union will need to follow up on in the future to actually ensure that illegal content online does not reappear after being removed,’ he said.
If a company is breaking DSA rules, it will face punishment. It will face fines of up to 6% of its annual global sales.
