About

What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years?

During my career at Abstra (the largest producer of YouTube video content in Poland) one of my biggest challenges included providing full legal support with agreements regarding the production of commercial YouTube channels for brands such as Durex, Martini or the leading retail chain store in Poland – Zabka. My responsibilities comprised of agreements with creators and companies, creating all of the necessary consents of image usage, reviews of visual identification, registration of the trademarks, evaluation of compatibility for brands with regulations and the advertising law. I was also responsible for the whole legal evaluation of the new Abstra company – Storia, which is the first Polish entity combining production of video content on YouTube with podcasts.

How important have “soft skills” or personal attributes outside of technical legal skill been to the team’s success, and which “soft skills” do you feel are most important for an in-house lawyer to possess?

Soft skills are extremely important in matters such as creating and maintaining proper relations with your peers at work, and with business partners. For the head of the legal department it is undoubtedly the best way in receiving valuable information from all significant sources inside the company. The key element is the ability to communicate the legal advice in brief, simple and genuine ways. Building and maintaining valuable relations inside the company allows better understanding of the business and strengthens the position of the law department inside the company.

What are the main qualities you look for in a potential new hire?

Any potential new candidate for the law department at Abstra should possess such personality traits as communicativeness, self-confidence and interpersonal skills. He or she needs to be open to new ideas and people as well. Intelligence is obviously also a crucial factor as well as vast knowledge regarding the legal area in which he or she specialises.

What advice would you give to any peers or colleagues working in the Polish market for the first time?

The ideal person ought to possess qualifications which should have been acquired while studying at university, such as passion and specialisation in narrow areas of law. Other significant factors include previous and current participation in networking societies, conferences and student research groups as well as publishing articles in law periodicals. Only through these activities can law students establish and maintain valuable relations in the broad world of law. It is also crucial to learn new languages and possess a knowledge of foreign law schools – it significantly simplifies
the potential cooperation with companies from abroad.

What can law firms in Poland, and the wider CEE region, do to win more business from you?

It is expected for law firms to deliver to Abstra brief legal advice with specific and meaningful recommendations which can later be simply implemented in the company’s activities.

FOCUS ON… CONTENT ID

How does YouTube’s Content ID affect the concept of freedom of speech?

Freedom of speech and access to an independent body that impartially rules on decisions of social media portals are the biggest issue for companies conducting their businesses on YouTube. It is also an issue for other tech giants like Facebook.

For example, Content ID, which is an algorithm on YouTube, that was designed to combat copyright infringement, due to its automated and out-of-context operations, sometimes wrongly assesses possible infringements. For instance, parodies of songs, which are permitted under Polish law, are marked as infringing. For companies which produce professionally entertaining content on YouTube it’s a significant challenge and huge business risk. Moreover, the process of rising objections to such decision of Content ID is complicated and sometimes can even lead to a video or even the whole YouTube channel being cancelled. Once the video is “marked” by Content ID, the income from advertisements is redirected to the potentially aggrieved party. That kind of dispute is often transboundary, so access to an independent court is straitened, complicated and expensive.

The Polish market case SIN v. Facebook depicts this issue and is widely discussed among lawyers. SIN is an acronym for an NGO whose aim is to provide help for drug addicts. The organisation established a group on Facebook on which people can get help as well as inform each other on potential effects of specific substances. The group was cancelled by Facebook without further justification. SIN filed an objection in accordance with Facebook’s regulation, but the decision was only sustained without explanation. The NGO sued Facebook in Poland for violating freedom of speech and for straitening access to court.

I would like to highlight de lege ferenda conclusions – the future regulations of tech giants which undoubtedly will have a dominant position and an impact on freedom of speech. Moreover, there is a need for change in inner regulations about copyright infringements on social media platforms. Whether it will be international arbitration, new international agreements regulating jurisdictions and applicable laws – it will be the biggest challenge for YouTube and other social media services.