Page 6 - A Study on the Role of UGC Platforms in Copyright Law：An Intermediary-oriented Approach

governing platform users’ use of UGCs is also advanced to balance the interests of UGC
creators, UGC platforms and platform users in exploiting UGCs.
This research not only proposes specific solutions to facilitate the creation and fair
exploitation of UGCs, but clarifies the deep-rooted misunderstanding of intermediaries
in copyright law through intensive historical study. By balancing the interests between
producers and distributors via a series of non-proprietary schemes, copyright law allowed
end users who have no capacity to present at the negotiation table to access and use
copyrighted works through the latest technology at an affordable price. The intermediary-
oriented approach sheds light on how copyright law should cope with the large amount of
unauthorized use brought about by new technologies.