This year’s copyright conference organised by the Swiss Forum for Communications Law, which will take place in Bern on 16 June 2026, is themed ‘From copyright to media regulation?’ and will examine the increasing regulatory density in the digital environment. Whilst traditional copyright law has historically focused on exclusive rights and individual enforcement, current developments show a clear shift towards specific obligations of conduct and action for digital intermediaries.
21st Copyright Conference: From copyright to media regulation?
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Date
16. June 2026
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Time
Uhr
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Location
Härting Office
Weitere Infos zum Termin und weiteren Programm finden Sie auf der Website der Veranstaltung
Zur VeranstaltungAgainst this backdrop, Nicole Beranek Zanon’s presentation addresses the question: ‘Provider liability: duties to act rather than liability rules?’. The presentation ties in with current developments in the context of platforms and AI and examines the increasing responsibility of providers within the digital ecosystem. Central to this is the observation that regulatory approaches are increasingly moving away from purely downstream liability for legal infringements and are instead establishing preventive obligations regarding monitoring, verification and cooperation. This development is made all the more topical by the draft Federal Act on Communication Platforms and Search Engines (KomPG), through which the Swiss legislature aims to create transparency, due diligence and procedural obligations for platform providers, thereby further reinforcing the trend towards more strictly regulated platform responsibility.
Particularly in the context of generative AI, platform services and data-driven business models, new copyright issues arise concerning the input and output of systems: What responsibility do providers bear when using copyright-protected content as training or input data? What obligations do platforms have regarding infringing AI outputs? And how far will technical and organisational control obligations extend in future? The discussion ranges from traditional notice-and-takedown mechanisms to proactive governance and compliance requirements, as increasingly arising from the Swiss Copyright Act (URG), the European digital and AI regulatory framework, and platform regulation.
The presentation systematically contextualises these developments and highlights the practical implications for providers, platform operators and companies that use or integrate AI systems. This concerns not only liability issues in the narrower sense, but also the fundamental shift from a reactive liability model towards a regulatory-driven culture of responsibility in the digital space.
Further information about the event and registration can be found here. We look forward to your participation.