I’m new to Solid and consider building an simple log-book app for flights with my RC aircrafts. During that process I stumbled into the following issue:
Given all the problems Youtube, Facebook and others have with copyrighted material and/or illegal content stored on their servers, how would a POD service provider handle that?
As I understand the current (or coming) laws in Europe then the company hosting illegal content is (or may become) responsible for it. For Big Tech companies it is somewhat manageable since they both own the application and the content - but how will it be for a POD host?
A company hosting PODs does not know how the data is used - although I do expect them to be able to screen the content.
But while Youtube “only” needs to screen videos, a POD host needs to be able screen ANY kind of content - zip files, images, office documents - the lot. And third party applications using the POD may even do client side encryption before storing the data.
So who would be interested in hosting PODs when they have no way to regulate how the data is used?
But, thinking about it, it is probably the same as hosting for instance Dropbox. How do they solve that problem?
Hi, answer is simple - nobody should be able do it. POD Provider shouldn’t be able scan any content you upload to your POD and anybody else shouldn’t know about it unless you give explicit consent. So nobody will be able to force your provider delete part of your POD.
And this is extremely good feature, it is like encrypted email provider ProtonMail.com (and I hope they make POD providing service too)
POD Provider shouldn’t be able scan any content you upload to your POD and anybody else shouldn’t know about it unless you give explicit consent
Well, I know that nobody else can access my POD data since the POD server protects it. But does any of the specs or standard server implementations say anything about encrypting my data on the POD?
So nobody will be able to force your provider delete part of your POD
I don’t think that is true. If I make my POD server public available and someone decides to store child porn on it - then I am pretty sure that I will be forced to delete it. Further more, I believe EU is working on laws that forces content providers to scan their content for illegal content.
See for instance Illegal content on online platforms | Shaping Europe’s digital future - “They (service providers) should have proactive tools to detect and remove illegal content, in particular for terrorism content and for content which does not need contextualisation to be deemed illegal, such as child sexual abuse material or counterfeited goods.”
So providing POD hosting (and certainly also other sorts of hosting) could get you into a rats nest of legal issues.
Regarding the EU Copyright Directive, I believe it wouldn’t be a severe issue to Solid, as it probably doesn’t even target the POD owners.
‘online content sharing service provider’ means a provider of an information society service 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.
So in the use cases I imagine, this directive shouldn’t make the POD owners responsible for copyright infringements done by users. But as mentioned before, I’m not a lawyer.
