Familiar to some and impenetrable to others, the arguments over safe harbour are worth breaking down, to get a sense of why music rightsholders feel so aggrieved with the current legislative framework – or more accurately, how it is being interpreted – and how they envisage it changing. In Europe, it all stems from the 2000 directive on electronic commerce, which took its cues from the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. And the relevant clause is the one explaining how online services quality for exemptions from liability for the content hosted on or passing through them.
Source: Why safe harbour will be the music industry’s big battle in 2016