Efficient Copyright Filters for Online Hosting Platforms

Abstract

We build a model where an online hosting platform develops a copyright filter to screen content that contributors wish to upload. The technology is imprecise, since non-infringing material may be incorrectly filtered out. Once the content is hosted on the platform, a right-holder may send a take-down notice if its own monitoring system, also imprecise, finds it to be copyright infringing. The efficient design of regulation and liability calls for (i) giving the right-holder incentives to evaluate fair use when submitting a notice and (ii) lifting the safe-harbor protection granted to platforms that promptly remove content following a take-down notice.