--- title: "EU Copyright Directive Guide for Digital Creators" description: "What the EU Copyright Directive (2019/790) says about platforms and creators: Article 17 notices and re-uploads, and your contract rights under Articles 18 to 22." canonical_url: "https://adultmodelprotection.com/blog/eu-copyright-directive-guide-for-digital-creators" last_updated: "2026-11-06T04:31:25.898Z" --- *Updated 30 October 2026: checked against the text of the Directive on EUR-Lex. An earlier version misquoted several articles and overstated what the Directive requires.* ## Understanding the EU Copyright Directive The EU Copyright Directive, formally [Directive (EU) 2019/790](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32019L0790) "on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market", was adopted on 17 April 2019 and entered into force on 6 June 2019. It is a major update of EU copyright rules for the digital single market. Recital 3 explains why: "Rapid technological developments continue to transform the way works and other subject matter are created, produced, distributed and exploited." Two parts of the Directive matter most to creators: **Article 17**, on platforms where users upload content, and **Articles 18 to 22**, on fair pay and transparency in creators' contracts. The Directive has no provisions specific to adult content; what follows is what the text says, and how it can apply to a creator's work. Adult Model Protection is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. The Directive works through each country's national law, so check the law of the country concerned or ask a lawyer how it applies to your case. ## Which Platforms Article 17 Covers Article 17 applies to "online content-sharing service providers". Article 2(6) defines these as providers whose "main or one of the main purposes is to store and give the public access to a large amount of copyright-protected works or other protected subject matter uploaded by its users, which it organises and promotes for profit-making purposes." The same article excludes, among others, not-for-profit online encyclopedias and repositories, open-source software platforms, online marketplaces, business-to-business cloud services and "cloud services that allow users to upload content for their own use". A tube site or social platform can qualify if it fits the definition; a cloud storage service usually does not. ## What Article 17 Requires of Platforms Under Article 17(1), such a provider "performs an act of communication to the public" when it gives the public access to copyright-protected works uploaded by its users. It must therefore obtain authorisation from the rightholders, "for instance by concluding a licensing agreement". If no authorisation is granted, Article 17(4) makes the provider liable unless it shows **all three** of the following: 1. It made best efforts to obtain an authorisation. 2. It made, in accordance with "high industry standards of professional diligence", best efforts to ensure the unavailability of **specific works** for which the rightholders have given it "the relevant and necessary information". 3. It "acted expeditiously, upon receiving a sufficiently substantiated notice from the rightholders, to disable access to, or to remove from their websites, the notified works", and made best efforts to prevent their future uploads. These are cumulative conditions, not alternatives. The Directive says "expeditiously"; it sets no fixed number of hours. **Smaller and newer services.** Article 17(6) sets a lighter regime for services that have been available in the EU for less than three years and have an annual turnover below EUR 10 million: they must make best efforts to obtain authorisation and act expeditiously on notices. If their average number of monthly unique visitors exceeds 5 million, they must also make best efforts to prevent further uploads of the notified works. **No general monitoring.** Article 17(8) states that the article "shall not lead to any general monitoring obligation". The Directive itself does not name a technology. But in case C-401/19 (Poland v Parliament and Council, judgment of 26 April 2022), the Court of Justice of the EU upheld Article 17 and held that, to meet points (b) and (c) of Article 17(4), providers are in practice required, depending on the number of files uploaded and the type of content and within the limits of Article 17(5), to review uploads in advance with automatic recognition and filtering tools ([judgment, paragraph 54](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62019CJ0401)). Those tools must not block lawful uploads. Recital 66 says that "different means to avoid the availability of unauthorised copyright-protected content could be appropriate and proportionate depending on the type of content", and that "in some cases availability of unauthorised content can only be avoided upon notification of rightholders". Article 17(5) lists what counts when judging a provider's efforts: the type, audience and size of the service, the type of content, and the availability and cost of suitable and effective means. ![Comparison of two parts of the EU Copyright Directive. Article 17, for copies on a qualifying content-sharing platform: send a sufficiently substantiated notice; the platform must act expeditiously and make best efforts against re-uploads; there is no general monitoring and no fixed number of hours. Articles 18 to 22, for your contracts: appropriate and proportionate pay, information at least once a year, extra pay when pay turns out disproportionately low, and revocation of an unused exclusive licence; these bind contract partners, not sites hosting copies.](/images/blog/blog-eu-copyright-directive-guide-for-digital-creators.webp) *Article 17 covers copies on platforms; Articles 18 to 22 cover your own contracts.* **Information and notices work together.** Recital 66 also says a provider is not liable for unidentified works where rightholders gave neither the relevant information nor a notice. But a provider that fails to act on a sufficiently substantiated notice stays liable "regardless of whether rightholders have made available the relevant and necessary information in advance". In practice, a clear notice is the creator's main tool. **Protection for uploaders.** Article 17(7) and recital 66 say that cooperation between platforms and rightholders should not prevent the availability of non-infringing content. Article 17(9) requires platforms to have "effective and expeditious complaint and redress mechanisms" for users whose uploads are removed; rightholders who ask for removal must "duly justify" the request, and the decisions are subject to human review. Under Article 17(8), platforms must give rightholders, at their request, adequate information on how their cooperation works. ![Decorative image: two creators in gold-toned styling, illustrating content ownership](/blogs-img/700x420-advanced-anti-piracy-methods-for-subscription-based-creators.webp) ## What This Means When You Find Your Content on a Platform - **Send a clear notice.** Article 17(4)(c) requires a "sufficiently substantiated notice". The Directive does not list what it must contain, so include what the platform's own copyright form asks for: usually the link to each copy, a description of your original work, a statement that the use is not authorised, and your contact details. For how a copyright notice is usually put together, see [how DMCA takedowns work](/blog/how-dmca-takedowns-work-a-creators-complete-guide). - **Expect best efforts against re-uploads, not a guarantee.** After a notice, the platform must make best efforts to prevent future uploads of the notified works. Copies can still return, and other sites are not covered by one platform's efforts. - **Think before sending full files.** The Directive asks rightholders for "relevant and necessary information", not for copies of their content. Whether to hand intimate media to a platform for matching is your decision; you can usually identify a work with links, titles and descriptions instead. - **Uploaders can complain.** If the uploader disputes the removal, the platform reviews the complaint through its own redress mechanism. ## Your Rights in Contracts (Articles 18 to 22) Articles 18 to 22 set out fair remuneration and transparency rules for authors and performers who license or transfer their rights, for example to a studio, distributor or a platform they signed a licensing deal with. They apply to your contract partners only; they do not oblige sites that host copies of your content without permission. - **Fair pay (Article 18).** Where authors and performers "license or transfer their exclusive rights for the exploitation of their works", they are "entitled to receive appropriate and proportionate remuneration". Recital 73 adds that remuneration should reflect the "actual or potential economic value of the licensed or transferred rights", and that "a lump sum payment can also constitute proportionate remuneration but it should not be the rule." - **Transparency (Article 19).** Your contract partner must give you, "on a regular basis, at least once a year", "up to date, relevant and comprehensive information on the exploitation of their works and performances", "in particular as regards modes of exploitation, all revenues generated and remuneration due". Where the rights were sub-licensed, you can ask the sub-licensee for information your first partner does not hold. Member States may limit this duty in some cases (Article 19(3) and (4)). - **Contract adjustment (Article 20).** In the absence of an applicable collective bargaining agreement, you can claim additional, appropriate and fair remuneration when the remuneration originally agreed "turns out to be disproportionately low compared to all the subsequent relevant revenues derived from the exploitation of the works or performances". - **Revocation (Article 22).** Where you licensed or transferred your rights exclusively and the work is not exploited, you may revoke the licence or transfer in whole or in part. National law sets the conditions: revocation is possible only after a reasonable time since the licence or transfer, and after you notify the partner and give a deadline to start exploiting the work. Member States may make exceptions, for example for works with many contributors. ## Timeline and Review Member States had until **7 June 2021** to transpose the Directive into national law (Article 29), so the exact rules depend on the country. Under [Article 30](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32019L0790), the Commission must review the Directive no sooner than 7 June 2026 and report its main findings to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee. Article 17(10) also asked the Commission to organise "stakeholder dialogues to discuss best practices for cooperation between online content-sharing service providers and rightholders" and to "issue guidance on the application of this Article". ![Decorative image: a creator holding a camera against a gold backdrop](/blogs-img/700x420-automated-monitoring-and-copyright-enforcement.webp) ## How Adult Model Protection Fits In You can send copyright notices to platforms yourself, for free, through each platform's form. What AMP adds is the work around them. Our team runs regular scans with search engines (Google, Bing and Yandex) and 500+ known leak and piracy sites, plus reverse image searches with the content assets you upload and manual searches. Your content assets are used only to search for copies and are never shared with third parties. We file copyright notices to platforms and removal requests to search engines under the name Adult Model Protection as your agent, and a person on our takedown team checks every notice before it is sent. Afterwards we check whether each page is gone, follow up when it is not, and find re-uploads in later scans. The platform decides each notice. Takedowns start on the Essentials plan; see [DMCA takedowns for adult content](/services/dmca-takedowns-adult-content) and [search engine de-indexing](/services/search-engine-deindexing). For background on copyright itself, read the [copyright basics](https://docs.adultmodelprotection.com/docs/legal/copyright-basics) in our docs, and to spot copies early, [how to detect content leaks](/blog/how-to-detect-content-leaks-before-they-go-viral). ## Conclusion Directive (EU) 2019/790 makes qualifying content-sharing platforms responsible for what their users upload, unless they meet three cumulative conditions: best efforts to get authorisation, best efforts to keep identified works unavailable, and expeditious action on substantiated notices with best efforts against re-uploads. It does not impose general monitoring or set fixed deadlines. In your own contracts, Articles 18 to 22 give you a right to proportionate pay, yearly information on how your work is used, an adjustment claim when pay turns out disproportionately low, and a right to revoke an exclusive licence that is not used. --- **Want help sending copyright notices?** [Start Free Plan](https://app.adultmodelprotection.com/signup?redirect=/subscribe) or [compare plans](/pricing); the Free plan includes a quarterly web scan, and takedowns start on Essentials.