In practice, the question frequently arises regarding the issue of liability of operators of services within which information (content) is stored by internet users (for such information). Most commonly, this issue affects operators of websites that allow the uploading of video or audio content, operators of websites containing discussion forums (including discussion forums related to goods), blogs and other community services, and furthermore operators of ftp servers or providers of web hosting services.

The liability of these persons - as so-called liability of a service provider for storing content of information provided by a user - falls under the legal regulation of Act No. 480/2004 Coll., on certain information society services and on amendments to certain acts (Act on certain information society services), as amended. The limitation of liability of a service provider for storing content of information provided by a user pursuant to this Act was originally intended primarily in relation to the provision of hosting services. Nevertheless, having regard to the general formulation of the provisions of the cited Act, in our opinion it is not excluded that this regulation may be applied also in the above-mentioned cases.

The provision of Section 5 of the Act on certain information society services provides that “a service provider whose service consists in storing information provided by a user shall be liable for the content of information stored at the request of a user only if a) having regard to the subject of its activity and the circumstances and nature of the case, it could have known that the content of the stored information or the conduct of the user is unlawful, or b) it has demonstrably learned of the unlawful nature of the content of the stored information or of the unlawful conduct of the user and has not promptly taken all steps that can be required of it to remove or make inaccessible such information.”

The above provisions are supplemented by Section 6 of the cited Act: “service providers are not obliged to a) supervise the content of information transmitted or stored by them, b) actively seek facts and circumstances indicating unlawful content of information.” From this it follows that the operator of a service is not obliged to actively seek facts as to whether any of the user’s contributions is unlawful. However, in the event that the operator “demonstrably learns” (most frequently on the basis of a notification from the affected person) that a user’s contribution is unlawful, it should promptly remove it, and in this connection it is also possible to recall the general principle of not causing damage pursuant to the provision of Section 415 of the Civil Code (Act No. 40/1964 Coll., as amended). The limitation of liability of the service operator naturally relates only to information stored by users. It is therefore advisable on the part of the operator to clearly distinguish which content on the website is content published by the operator and when it concerns users’ contributions.

From the above provisions of the Act on certain information society services it follows that, from the perspective of the service operator, the dominant role is played by the question of assessing the unlawfulness of content stored by a user. This, of course, need not always be simple in practice, both from a factual and from a legal point of view. On the other hand, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the service operator is in most cases a professional entrepreneur, and it is thus assumed that it will be able to assess the situation appropriately (or arrange for an appropriate assessment). In more important cases or in cases where there is a risk of greater damage occurring, it is advisable to consult the case with a legal representative.

However, it is not possible to forget the above-mentioned regulation pursuant to the provision of Section 5(a) of the cited Act, i.e. the situation where the service provider is liable for the content of stored information if, “having regard to the subject of its activity and the circumstances and nature of the case,” it could have known “that the content of the stored information or the conduct of the user is unlawful…” This could be the case particularly with regard to a number of services consisting in the uploading of video content to the provider’s server by internet users, where it is obvious at first glance that individual contributions infringe the copyright or similar rights of third parties.

This text was translated from Czech to English using an AI translator.