Sampling is a technique used in the music industry which utilises parts of pre-existing recordings in order to create a new music composition. Although sampling has been a common practice and a widely-used method in many modern music productions, its legality under EU law is still to be determined. From the perspective of European copyright…

People within the European Union travel more than ever before for professional or personal reasons. When they do so, the four freedoms enshrined in the TFEU guarantee that they can take with them their siblings, professional qualifications, goods and money. One of the things they could not take with them, however, was their subscription to…

The fight for the new press publishers’ right is continuing in the European Parliament. It was proposed by the European Commission in the draft Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market in 2016 and since then has attracted extensive discussion involving different groups. It is certainly not the first attempt by publishers to seek…

On 19 March 2018, the Department of Communications and the Arts released its Copyright Modernisation Consultation Paper (Consultation Paper) addressing key proposals for the reform (or rather “modernisation”) of Australia’s copyright laws and regulations. The Consultation Paper is the latest in a series of publications addressing copyright law reform in Australia, some of which were…

At the end of 2017, HADOPI published an important survey on its activities for the period 2016-2017. It gives interesting and useful information on the graduated response created by the French legislator to fight online infringement directly at the source, by educating internet users and dissuading them from unlawfully downloading and/or sharing (and if possible…

Whether the online real estate brokerage Redfin exceeded its license to use Alexander Stross’s copyrighted property photographs raised a question of fact for the jury, a panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals determined, reversing the federal district court in Austin’s decision that Redfin’s license was a complete defense to Stross’s claim of copyright infringement….

The University of Cyprus, with great enthusiasm, invites you to join the international copyright law conference “Pluralism or universalism in international copyright law”, which will be held from 31st May to 1st June 2018 in the heart of Cyprus’ commercial and business centre, Nicosia, at the facilities of the University of Cyprus. We are very…

The first part of this post discussed the implementation of the Directive in Greece. As shown, the implementation of the Directive was seen as an occasion to impose a mechanism of stricter control of CMOs, especially when they face significant financial difficulties. The implementation of the Directive in Greece was made significantly more complicated due…

Although a professional photographer plausibly alleged that he owned a valid copyright in a photo of basketball superstar Michael Jordan, and that sports apparel company Nike copied the photo to create its “Jumpman” logo that Nike uses in advertisements and on merchandise, the photographer failed to plausibly allege that Nike copied enough of the protected…

Four years have passed since the adoption of Directive 2014/26/EU on collective management of copyright and related rights. The Directive aimed to provide a remedy for certain of the pathogenies of collective management organisations (CMOs), which have been often denounced for their lack of transparency and abusive practices, but also came as a response to…