Case Law, Communication (right of), Digital Single Market, Germany, Infringement, Making available (right of)

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Decision of the German Bundesgerichtshof (“BGH”) of July 9, 2015, file no. I ZR 46/12 (“Die Realitaet II”) The CJEU confirmed in Svensson that linking to content may be a public communication where it reaches a new public. Some issues, however, remained unresolved. One open question is whether linking to illegal content always reaches a…

Case Law, Database right, European Union, Infringement

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In response to a reference from the Bundesgerichtshof (Germany), the CJEU ruled that geographical information extracted from a topographic map by a third party in order to produce and market another map retains, following its extraction, sufficient informative value to be classified as ‘independent materials’ of a ‘database’ within the meaning of Article 1(2) of…

Case Law, USA

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A copyright claim brought by hip-hop artist Tyrone Simmons—who purchased an exclusive license to use a beat known as the “I Get Money Instrumental”—against the beat’s creator (William Stanberry, Jr.) and a group of defendants associated with rapper Curtis Jackson, known professionally as “50 Cent,” who used the beat in a hit song, was time-barred…

Case Law, European Union, Infringement, Legislative process, Netherlands, Text and Data Mining (TDM)

(Institute for Information Law)/ /1 Comment

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…

Case Law, Enforcement, Infringement, Injunction, Liability, Remedies, Sweden

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The Swedish Supreme Court considered under what circumstances, and to what extent, a penalty payment can be imposed on a company that has been prohibited under penalty of a fine from selling an infringing product, where violations to that prohibition have been made by a third party. A full summary of this case has been…

Legislative process, Netherlands, Remuneration (equitable)

(Institute for Information Law)/ /1 Comment

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…

Case Law, France, Infringement, Originality

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The French Supreme Court stated that the lower courts must take into consideration all the choices of the author in order to decide whether a work is original and therefore protected by copyright law, and not simply the common aspects of the work. A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP…

Case Law, CJEU, Communication (right of), Enforcement, European Union, Infringement, Liability, Remedies

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In response to a reference from the Brussels Court of Appeal, the CJEU held that Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29/EC (the Infosoc Directive) must be interpreted as meaning that a broadcasting organisation does not carry out an act of “communication to the public” when it transmits its programme-carrying signals exclusively to signal distributors without those…

Case Law, Exhaustion, Infringement, Liability, Netherlands

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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…