USER-GENERATED CONTENT (UGC) IN CYBERSPACE PLATFORMS: THE CONTRACTUAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PLATFORM OPERATOR AND THE USER-AUTHOR AND THE ALLOCATION OF LIABILITY

The article examines user-generated content (UGC) as a sui generis subcategory of the cyberspace content-distribution relationship, in which the platform user is simultaneously the consumer of the platform's services and the author-uploader of the content distributed through it. Drawing upon Article 17 of the EU DSM Directive, the Digital Services Act, the US DMCA Safe Harbour regime and the German Störerhaftung doctrine, the article analyses three contractual figures (sub-licensing, agency, conditional-access licensing) and proposes a draft provision for the Civil Code of Uzbekistan establishing a balanced allocation of liability between platform and user-author