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May 28, 2025

Comment: Should Online Platforms Bear A Proactive Obligation To Curb Digital Piracy?

Author: Devesh Kapoor

Digital piracy remains a persistent challenge for copyright holders, and online platforms play a crucial role in tackling it. Currently, most platforms adopt a notice-and-takedown approach, acting only when a rights holder raises a complaint. This reactive model raises an important question: Should platforms be legally required to take preemptive action against piracy? While such a move could strengthen copyright protection, the author believes that it raises concerns about fairness, feasibility, and unintended consequences.

Supporters of stricter measures argue that digital platforms benefit from user-generated content and should take greater responsibility for preventing copyright violations. Large-scale automated tools, like YouTube’s Content ID, suggest that proactive filtering is achievable, at least to some extent. More stringent obligations could deter habitual piracy and provide a stronger safeguard for content creators. Furthermore, placing the entire burden of enforcement on rights holders is neither practical nor equitable, especially for smaller creators who lack the resources to police piracy themselves.

The author believes that requiring platforms to actively monitor content comes with significant downsides. Even the most sophisticated automated filters still get it wrong by mistaking lawful content like reviews, parodies, and educational material for piracy. This leads to frustrated creators, wrongful takedowns, and excessive censorship. Moreover, proactive monitoring would place a heavy financial and technical burden on smaller platforms, potentially driving them out of the market. If compliance becomes a game only deep-pocketed tech giants can play, smaller platforms do not stand a chance. The result? Less competition, fewer innovative voices, and an online space that becomes increasingly monopolized.

Then, there is the elephant in the room: the big corporations gaming the system. With the right legal muscle, copyright claims could become a convenient tool to silence critics, muzzle competition, and control the narrative. All in the name of ‘enforcement’. Faced with the threat of legal trouble, platforms are more likely to play it safe by blocking first and asking questions later. Before long, we are likely to see a system where lawful content gets swept up in the dragnet, and creators are left scrambling to fight wrongful takedowns.

While piracy is a legitimate issue, forcing platforms into an aggressive policing role may introduce more problems than it solves. The focus should be on accountability in enforcement, not mass surveillance of content.

Disclaimer: Views, opinions, interpretations are solely those of the author, not of the firm (ALG India Law Offices LLP) nor reflective thereof. Author submissions are not checked for plagiarism or any other aspect before being posted.

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