Main instruments for the protection of digital works on Instagram
Today, Instagram is one of the most popular and widely used social networks in the world. One of the reasons why this platform has become so popular is its ability to share photos and videos quickly and easily. Instagram, in particular, is a platform directly linked to copyright because it allows users to share photos and videos that can be protected if they meet certain requirements.
Photographs or videos of artistic works that users upload to Instagram may be original creations subject to copyright protection, which from the moment they are introduced on the Internet have a high risk of being victims of infringement. As a consequence of copyright infringement in digital works on the Internet, both the law and technology have begun to serve copyright owners in order to curb unauthorized access, reproduction, adaptation, distribution or communication.
For this purpose, different means for their defense on the Internet, both judicial and extrajudicial, are available to copyright owners. Among the extrajudicial means that can be used to defend users’ works on Instagram, are the following:
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- Establishing information for the management of rights on Instagram: Copyright holders have the possibility to provide information for the electronic management of their rights in the copies of their protected works or in their public communications on Instagram, which is any information that identifies the protected work, the author or any other right holder or that indicates the conditions of use of the protected work on Instagram.
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- Initiate complaint procedures in Instagram in the event of copyright infringement: In the event of copyright infringement of the authors of their works on Instagram, the platform itself establishes an internal complaint system to solve intellectual property problems that may arise. It is a mechanism open to copyright holders or their representatives, but cannot be used by third parties outside the dispute, although if necessary they can notify those affected by an alleged infringement.
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- Register the Works in the Intellectual Property Registry or in alternative private digital registries:
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- Intellectual Property Registry: On the other hand, for further protection outside the Instagram platform, there is the possibility of registering the works in the Spanish Intellectual Property Registry. The role of the Intellectual Property Registry may be convenient, especially when it is necessary to prove the ownership of a creation and the successive transmissions of exploitation rights over it in order to, if necessary, take the relevant actions for its defense.
- Alternative private digital registers: As alternative measures to the Intellectual Property Registry, copyright owners have the possibility of registering their works in the so-called “digital registers of rights”, which are of a private nature. Such private registries are digital deposits of works that generate a principle of proof of authorship and, consequently, of the ownership of the moral rights of the author.
On the other hand, as regards the means of judicial defense of copyrights, the Spanish legal system enables the injured party to go to court to defend his intellectual property rights. From an objective jurisdiction point of view, intellectual property proceedings are assigned in the first instance to the Commercial Courts and from a territorial point of view, the court of the place where the infringement has been committed or where there are indications of its commission or where the illicit copies are found, at the plaintiff’s choice, is competent to hear proceedings relating to intellectual property.
Likewise, the Spanish legal system makes available to the holders of intellectual property rights different civil, criminal and even administrative actions that may be brought in the event of infringements and for each specific case.
This publication does not constitute legal advice.
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