CENTR comment on the Proposal for a Regulation on a Single Market For Digital Services (Digital Services Act) and amending Directive 2000/31/EC
... A domain name and its management are distinct from, and cannot be equated with the content of any services related to the domain name, that are provided by other intermediaries (such as web hosting companies, mail service providers etc).
The DSA proposal considers that "providers of services establishing and facilitating the underlying logical architecture and proper functioning of the internet, including technical auxiliary functions, can also benefit from the exemptions from liability set out in this Regulation, to the extent that their services qualify as ‘mere conduits’, ‘caching’ or ‘hosting’ services. Such services include, as the case may be,[...] domain name system (DNS) services, top–level domain name registries,[...] that enable or improve the functions of other providers of intermediary services" (Recital 27).
CENTR welcomes the vigilant attention given by the European Commission to the technical auxiliary function of TLD registries in the DSA proposal and the recognition of that role to enable the provision of other intermediary services.
However, the limitation of the liability exemptions to 'mere conduit', 'caching' and 'hosting', which such technical auxiliary function providers can in principle benefit from, does not reflect the technological reality of the services provided by operators like ccTLDs.
read more (centr) / PDF Attached
- The role of domain name registries in the light of liability exemptions
- Definition of illegal content
- Due diligence obligations
- Powers of Digital Services Coordinators
... A domain name and its management are distinct from, and cannot be equated with the content of any services related to the domain name, that are provided by other intermediaries (such as web hosting companies, mail service providers etc).
The DSA proposal considers that "providers of services establishing and facilitating the underlying logical architecture and proper functioning of the internet, including technical auxiliary functions, can also benefit from the exemptions from liability set out in this Regulation, to the extent that their services qualify as ‘mere conduits’, ‘caching’ or ‘hosting’ services. Such services include, as the case may be,[...] domain name system (DNS) services, top–level domain name registries,[...] that enable or improve the functions of other providers of intermediary services" (Recital 27).
CENTR welcomes the vigilant attention given by the European Commission to the technical auxiliary function of TLD registries in the DSA proposal and the recognition of that role to enable the provision of other intermediary services.
However, the limitation of the liability exemptions to 'mere conduit', 'caching' and 'hosting', which such technical auxiliary function providers can in principle benefit from, does not reflect the technological reality of the services provided by operators like ccTLDs.
read more (centr) / PDF Attached
