European Union

Case Law, CDSM Directive, CJEU, Communication (right of), Digital Single Market, European Union, Liability, Netherlands

(Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam)/ /Leave a comment

On 12 June 2019, the High Court of the Netherlands referred four questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for a preliminary ruling. The questions concern an ongoing battle between Stichting Brein, a Dutch anti-piracy organisation representing movie and music industries, and NSE (News-Service.com), an online platform for Usenet services. Stichting…

CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, European Union, Legislative process

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Impartial observers of the 2018-19 debates around the new European Directive on Copyright must have been mystified. They were used to the acrimonious disputes between lobbies representing conflicting short-term economic interests. No surprise there. The shock came from elsewhere; from citizen reactions, community responses and societal questions. What if these reactions, responses and questions were…

Brexit, CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, European Union, Legislative process, United Kingdom

(CREATe, University of Glasgow)/ /1 Comment

Here we have it. The first instance of regulatory divergence. The UK is leaving the European Union, and already the rules of the single market are starting to break. In response to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Jo Stevens, Intellectual Property Minister Chris Skidmore said on 21 January that the UK Government had no…

AG Opinion, Belgium, Case Law, CJEU, Design Rights, European Union, Infringement, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable)

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Part I of this post provided an overview of the facts of the case and the recent opinion of AG Campos Sanchez-Bordona. Overall, the opinion is a mixed result. It makes some good points but also some ill-judged ones, and these will be explored in more detail in this post. Let us start with the positive…

AG Opinion, Belgium, Case Law, CJEU, Design Rights, European Union, Infringement, Subject matter (copyrightable)

(The University of Nottingham)/ /Leave a comment

This case concerned the famous Brompton bicycle which can be folded to carry away after use (Case C‑833/18, SI, Brompton Bicycle Ltd. v. Chedech / Get2Get). The bike was once protected by a patent and, following its expiry, the defendant (Chedech/Get2Get) embarked on selling a similar bike in Belgium (the designs of the two bikes…

CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Infringement, Legislative process, Liability

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Part I of this post discussed the current position of host providers and the changes that will be brought about by Article 17. Part II addresses the major problems in relation to Article 17 and how it should be implemented to try and minimize these. The host provider privilege as a safeguard for a diverse…

CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Infringement, Legislative process, Liability

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On July 6, the EU adopted the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM Directive), following heated discussions of Articles 15 (formerly 11) and 17 (formerly 13) in particular. In Germany, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demonstrate against the planned legislation in the lead-up to the vote in the European Parliament…

CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, European Union, Legislative process

(Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /Leave a comment

Part 1 of this post outlined two of the three main takeaways from the Article 17 stakeholder dialogue so far. This part will cover the third of these, lack of transparency, and look ahead to the next phase of the dialogue. Lack of transparency on all sides There was finally one issue that all stakeholders…

CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, European Union, Legislative process

(Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /5 Comments

As 2020 unfolds, the European Commission’s stakeholder dialogue pursuant to Article 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM directive) enters its third (and likely final) phase. After four meetings that focussed on gathering “an overview of the current market situation as regards licensing practices, tools used for online content management…

CDSM Directive, CJEU, Digital Single Market, European Union, Legislative process

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As we enter a new year, we would like to take this opportunity to pass on our best wishes for 2020 to all of our readers, as well as reflect on developments in copyright over the past year.  Last year was another busy one in the copyright world, with a number of landmark CJEU decisions,…