“The activity of the operator of a dedicated meta search engine (…) comes close to the manufacture of a parasitical competing product.” Christmas somewhat overshadowed the publication of a particularly interesting CJEU decision: case C-202/12 (Innoweb), dealing with the legal protection of databases in relation to meta search engines. The judgment was published on 19…

“In that case, the publication of an hyperlink is, in principle, not an autonomous communication to the public” It is a common fact that the sex-industry, along with the arms industry,  is a driving force behind many new developments. Porn is a major force on the internet and it also shouldn’t come as a surprise…

“”The difficulty also lies in the fact that (to our knowledge) no levy system within the EU provided before Padawan for such a distinction and that the structure of the payment system did/does not lend itself easily to making such a distinction.” There’s nothing wrong with a private copying levy, the CJEU decided in SGAE/Padawan,…

“The occasional use of an unusual expression – such as “she has a black belt in shopping, so uh …” to describe the shopping behavior of Endstra’s wife  – is not enough to make a copyrighted work of an otherwise banal or trivial designed conversation.” Amsterdam Court of Appeal, 16 Juli 2013 (Endstra heirs vs….

“When it is established or not contradicted that a reasonable remuneration has been offered, additional circumstances will be necessary in order to conclude that publication is indeed illegitimate.” In an interesting case about the portrait rights of the legendary Dutch football (soccer) player Johan Cruijff, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands recently ruled that a…

“The viewer will not experience it as real and will even consider it to be weird, amateurish or even ridiculous.” In a case about the use of the ‘house style’ of the Dutch police, the summary proceedings judge  District Court Amsterdam ruled this week that the Dutch State has to give permission to the producer…

“The law does not allow for additional protection of the maker of a work against so-called slavish imitation of a style or of elements of style.” Supreme Court of the Netherlands, 29 March 2013 (Duijsens/Broeren).    Although the legal concept of coat-tail riding is usually associated with trademark law, it is certainly not unfamiliar to copyright law….

Besides tulips, cheese, football and other recreational matters, the Netherlands are famous for its copyright protection of non-original writings. Geschriftenbescherming, as the Dutch call this legal anomaly (and only they know how to pronounce it), is a remnant of an ancient eighteenth-century printer’s right that lives on until this day in the Dutch Copyright Act…

“However, in none of the studied countries, e-lending activities rely on a statutory copyright or lending right exception.” By Kelly Breemen and Vicky Breemen, Institute for Information Law, Amsterdam (IViR). Public libraries in various countries are increasingly involved in e-lending practices. Thus far, these practices are largely based on contractual agreements between the parties concerned…

Supreme Court of the Netherlands, 23 November 2012,  Foundation for Public Lending vs. Association of Public Libraries. Lending right.  According to the Supreme Court of The Netherlands there is no legal obligation to pay a separate  remuneration  for a renewal of a library book loan and the extension of  the due date.  Plaintiff, the Foundation…