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canopic jug writes:

[...] A work that might look infringing because it includes public domain material used elsewhere therefore runs the risk of being widely blocked.[...]

Although in theory those using public domain materials might be able to appeal against such an action, it would require them to know how to do that, and to have the time and the inclination to do so. One of biggest strengths of public domain materials is that they can be used without permission by anyone – especially by those who know nothing about the finer points of copyright law, and who have limited financial resources. It is precisely these individuals who will be unwilling or unable to challenge erroneous blocking by upload filters. Over time, people may even avoid drawing on public domain materials for fear that their posts will be blocked, and that they may be subject to other punishments by sites hosting their material because of their repeated copyright "offences".

Those pushing for upload filters will doubtless insist this outcome is not their intent, and that may be so. But given the impossibility of incorporating detailed legal knowledge about this famously complex area into online censorship systems, and the vulnerability of the public domain, which is particularly at risk because there is no organisation to defend it, it is inevitable that this rich resource, built up over three hundred years, will be badly affected by automated filters. If it adopts this approach, the EU will end up undermining the basic quid pro quo of copyright – that works can be used freely after a temporary monopoly has elapsed – and thus the public's acceptance that the current framework is in some sense "fair". Ironically, a draconian upload filter system brought in supposedly to defend copyright could end up leading to it being seriously de-legitimised.

Source : Don't Let Upload Filters Undermine the Public Domain

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