Brazil - ISP held jointly liable for copyright infringement under its platform

The Superior Court of Justice ("STJ") ruled that an Internet Service Provider is jointly liable for user-generated content ("UGC") in a case involving allegations of violation of copyright. The case involved a publishing house that specialized in educational materials, which identified that certain blogs had been using copyright protected work in their posts owned by the said publishing house. The plaintiff promptly notified the ISP requesting the removal of the infringing content. The ISP, however, refused to take down the content at the first instance, only did so after receiving a court notice. The court decision was grounded on other STJ precedents dealing with personality rights, libel and other individual offenses and upheld the decision issued by State Court of the State of Minas Gerais, setting forth that although the ISP shall not be held strictly liable for the copyright infringement conducted by a third party - since the ISP may not be capable of controlling the lawfulness of UGC available on its platforms - it shall promptly remove the alleged infringing content when notified, otherwise they will be subject to joint liability. Since the publishing house has given evidence that the ISP failed to remove the content upon receipt of the first removal request, the Court upheld the decision that the ISP should be jointly liable for the infringement.