On 11.12.2015, the Federal Council opened the consultation on the revision of copyright law (see also Media release and swissblawg).
On the subject of piracy, the Federal Council comments as follows:
More efficient fight against piracy
The committee set up by Federal President Simonetta Sommaruga AGUR12 agreed that targeted measures should be taken against piracy. The bill takes up this concern. In the future, anti-piracy measures are to be taken where they are most efficient, namely by the providers. They can act quickly and in a targeted manner. Swiss hosting providers are not to host piracy platforms and, in the event of copyright infringements via their servers, are to remove the content in question quickly. However, large, commercial pirate sites are often hosted by hosting providers whose headquarters or location is abroad or whose location is disguised. In these cases, Swiss access providers are supposed to block access on the instructions of the authorities. The Internet blocks are to be designed in such a way that the simultaneous blocking of lawful content (“overblocking”) is avoided as far as possible. In return for these new obligations, the bill provides for liability exemptions for providers. They give providers the legal certainty they need to operate their business.
On provider liability under the Federal Council’s draft, Rigamonti in the sic! 3/2016, 117 et seq., critically expressed:
This status quo of provider liability in Switzerland is to be overlaid by regulatory obligations as part of the ongoing copyright reform, which will bring a “notice and takedown procedure” for hosting providers and require access providers to block access and identify infringers in P2P networks. In return, they are to be released from liability as participants in copyright infringements by their customers. An initial analysis of these new obligations shows that the Federal Council’s proposal overshoots the mark by far and thus needs to be significantly improved in various places.