Authorship, Case Law, European Union, International Agreement, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable)

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

Just seven weeks after the release of the AG’s Opinion the Kwantum v. Vitra case was decided by the European Court. For Dutch background and early criticism, see my earlier blog. The main question asked to the Court was whether a Member State may unilaterally apply the Berne Convention’s rule of material reciprocity (Article 2(7)…

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Authorship, European Union, Originality, USA

(Universidade Católica Portuguesa)/ /Leave a comment

Code as a literary work Following lengthy discussion in the 1970s and 1980s, by 1991 in the EU and 1994 at the WTO level, the legal status of computer programs was a settled matter: software was to be treated under copyright as a literary work. Source code and object code are protected by copyright. As…

Case Law, CJEU, Communication (right of), European Union, Making available (right of), Netherlands, Technological measures

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

Once again, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will be asked to provide clarity on the concept of “communication to the public” as laid down in article 3 of the 2001 Copyright in the Information Society Directive (InfoSoc Directive). On 20 September 2024, the Dutch Supreme Court expressed its intention to refer…

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Exceptions and Limitations, Germany, Text and Data Mining (TDM)

, (NORDEMANN)/ /Leave a comment

The German Regional Court (Landgericht) of Hamburg handed down its judgment in the LAION case on 27 September 2024 (file no. 310 O 227/23, published in German here).   The key points of the decision are as follows: The reproduction of works for the purpose of creating URL lists that can be used for artificial…

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Digital Single Market, European Union, France, Germany, Netherlands, Remuneration (equitable)

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

The European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA) has for many years supported the move away from proprietary models of scholarly publishing towards Open Access (OA).[1] ALLEA, therefore, welcomes the recognition in the laws of an increasing number of European countries of so-called ‘Secondary Publication Rights’ (SPRs) that allow publicly funded researchers to…

Austria, Case Law, Exceptions and Limitations, Infringement

(Geistwert)/ /Leave a comment

The Robber Hotzenplotz is the title of a book series for children, written by Ottfried Preußler. The figure of robber Hotzenplotz is characterized on the book cover by a huge black hat, a red band and a feather.   A political party incorporated the face of the Austrian city’s mayor into the drawing of robber…

Case Law, Germany

(Goethe University Frankfurt am Main) and (University College Dublin)/ /Leave a comment

On 11 September 2024, the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) had to decide on the question of whether photos or videos shared online featuring in their background a photo wallpaper protected by copyright are lawful under an implied license, or if an express authorization of such reproductions is required. In three decisions of that…

CDSM Directive, Liability

(University of Leeds)/ /Leave a comment

Content creation on YouTube reportedly reached a new peak during the second half of 2023, meaning that the platform experienced a surge in infringing uploads on the one hand, and copyright actions by its users on the other. The platform’s automatic detection technologies have once more been put to the test, while compliance with the…

Authorship, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Legislative process, Ownership, USA

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

The Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam, in collaboration with Kluwer Law International, publisher of the Information Law Series, has launched an online archive of older book volumes published in the series. The Information Law Series, which was established in 1991, is the world’s first and foremost academic book series in…

Case Law, Design Rights, Italy, Originality

(Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna)/ /Leave a comment

  Earlier this year, the Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) issued an order (Cass., ord. no.11413/2024) in a case concerning the protection by copyright of a lamp design. Part I of this post outlined the decisions issued as the case made its way through the Italian court system. Part II will now turn to the…