Breaking: Israeli @KnessetIL just approved an amendment to the Israeli #Copyright Law. Further information to follow
The amendment includes permitted uses of orphan works, indirect liability for facilitating access to infringing communication to the public, content blocking injunctions, user identification provisions, exclusion from statutory damages and new criminal prohibitions
Orphan works: a use of an orphan work will be permitted if after due efforts the copyright owner was not found. If for commercial purposes, fair compensation will be due if owner so requires.
Indirect Liability: a person who facilitates access to a work that was unlawfully made avaialble to the public, with intention to make profits from such facilitation and from the original infringement, will be liable to if it knew or should have known about the infringement.
technological monitoring of infringements will not be considered as prima facie knowledge of infringements
the explanatory notes explicitly state that this will not apply to intermediaries, and common law contributory liability will apply
Content blocking: courts will have authority to instruct ISPs to restrict access to infringing contents, if convinced of such infringement and after weighing other mitigating factors such as adverse effects on users, lawful contents, privacy, etc.
If the content is stored on an Israeli server, or by an Israeli entity, courts will require storage providers to remove the content.
Infringer identification: courts will have authority to require any person who may have information that could identify an anonymous infringer to provide such information to the court.
After giving the infringer an option to defend itself, and if convinced of the existence of an infringement, the court could provide the information to the copyright owner for enforcement purposes only.
Exclusion of statutory damages: educational entities, libraries, archives and museums will not be liable to statutory damages for copyright infringement.
In addition, using artistic works (including photos) without permission will not be subject to statutory damages if made non-for-profit and if the user ceases following a notice from the copyright owner.
New Criminal Sanctions: infringing the broadcasting and communication to the public rights may lead to criminal liability (under the same standards and criminal copying)
