A full report of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law and the case has been discussed on the Kluwer Copyright Blog here. The Court of Justice of the European Union concluded that Directive 93/98/EEC harmonising the term of protection of copyright in the EU does not have the effect of restoring or…

Yes, e-lending can land itself a spot under the public lending right. That is what the European Court of Justice held in its preliminary ruling in the case between Vereniging Openbare Bibliotheken v. Stichting Leenrecht (10 November 2016, case C‑174/15). The decision clarifies the Rental and Lending Rights Directive’s scope of application. It is an…

In a recent decision (case C-169/15), the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that Directive 93/98/EEC harmonising the term of protection of copyright in the EU does not have the effect of restoring or reviving rights that, prior to its entry into force (1 July 1995), were for any reason in the…

A report published by the EnDOW project on the “Requirements for Diligent Search in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Italy” confirms what everyone suspected all along: the diligent search mechanism set up by the Orphan Works Directive is too cumbersome to lead to useful results. Consequently, the status of works held by cultural heritage…

It is beyond dispute that Anne Frank’s diary is of great historical value. A recent Dutch court decision confirms this, in a case that perfectly illustrates the tension between freedom of scientific research and the enforcement of copyright. On the 23rd of December 2015, the District Court of Amsterdam handed down its ruling in a…

The Dutch Copyright Contract Law entered into force on July 1st 2015. According to the legislator it aims to strengthen the position of the author and performer in exploitation agreements (see Explanatory Memorandum under 1, 1st paragraph), and will ideally lead to them receiving a fairer share of the profit from their work (see Memorandum…

The Court of Appeal ruled that the resale of used e-books by Tom Kabinet was permitted based on the CJEU’s UsedSoft ruling, although that case dealt with the sale of second-hand software. Nevertheless, the Court agreed with NUV that Tom Kabinet, as an internet intermediary, facilitates the resale of illegal content by the absence of…

As we enter a new year, we would like to take this opportunity to pass on our best wishes for 2016 to all of our readers, as well as reflect on developments in copyright over the past year.  Last year was a busy one in the copyright world, with a number of landmark CJEU decisions,…

On November 13th the Dutch Supreme Court provided another chapter in the case of ISPs and blocking of the Pirate Bay (hereafter: TPB). It decided that the Court of Appeal had used an incorrect, namely too broad, criterion to judge the effectiveness of a blocking measure. Furthermore, preliminary questions were referred to the ECJ concerning…

The case of Svensson Retriever has shown that a hyperlink to a work freely available on a website accessible for all internet users is not a new communication to the public in the sense of Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29/EC. However, the preliminary questions posed to the ECJ by an interlocutory judgment of September 30…