Legal Challenges of the Data Economy: Copyright, Liability and Transparency
Legal Challenges of the Data Economy: Copyright, Liability and Transparency

Course Overview

This course is dedicated to legal challenges posed by online platforms (eg YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Amazon). The focus lies on the liability of platform providers for infringing user uploads, automated enforcement tools (upload filters) and the lack of transparency that arises in a platform environment. At the center of the lectures are current approaches by the European legislature to address these challenges.


Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Philipp Homar (philipp.homar@jku.at)

Technical assistance: Kristýna Korbelová (508577@muni.cz)


Course Outline

The course consists of 5 meetings. They are structured as follows:

Meeting 1: Introduction to the course and to legal challenges posed by online platforms (Tuesday 26.11.2024, 18:00–19:40, 024)

Meeting 2: Liability of platform providers for copyright infringing uploads (Wednesday 27.11.2024, 12:00–13:40, S125)

Meeting 3: Liability of platform providers for trademark infringements (Thursday 28.11.2024, 12:00–13:40, 208)

Meeting 4: Upload Filters and approaches to mitigating risks of overblocking (Thursday 28.11.2024, 14:00–15:40, 208)

Meeting 5: Transparency of rankings and search results (Friday 29.11.2024, 10:00–11:40, 025)


Preparation and materials

The classroom sessions will consist of a mixture of lectures and discussions. All students are highly encouraged to participate in these discussions. To be able to engage, reading the assigned materials before each class will be helpful. In addition, a list of questions is available for each unit. 


Further Readings for the Lectures

Frosio (ed), Oxford Handbook of Online Intermediary Liability, Chapters 1 and 15-20

Perel/Elkin-Koren, Accountability in Algorithmic Copyright Enforcement, 19 Stanford Technology Law Review 2016, 473


Examination

The final lecture will conclude with a multiple-choice test. All organizational issues including the mode of assessment will be discussed at the beginning of the first meeting.