User-Generated-Content and Copyright: The European Union Approach

The development of the so-called Web 2.0 caused a shift from a passive use of the Internet to an active role of the user that implied the transformation of the simple user in creator so that each and every user can easily be a creator. This is the reality at the origin of the diffusion of User-Generated-Content (UGC). In fact, UGC implies a massive creation of new material constantly published on the net and generally based on pre-existing material, being an adaptation or modification of the same. This paper is intended to understand why the European Union approach to the regulation of this new kind of content production is still uncertain. Firstly the background of the consultation launched by the European Union Commission will be analyzed together with the phenomenon. Then, in the second and third paragraph the rights involved and the three possible alternative solutions will be examined. Finally, the aspects that remained unheeded will be quickly reviewed. This analysis is aimed to understand such approach and the reasons why it lead to a substantial failure of the attempt to regulate an incredibly complex and massive instrument of creation (and infringement) of copyrighted material.