In a decision of 20 February 2025 the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) denied copyright protection as a work of applied art for two sandal designs. The ruling clarifies the scope of protection under German and EU law for works of applied art. According to the BGH, works of applied art enjoy protection if they…
The debate on the use of copyrighted material to train generative AI models is evolving, shifting its focus from whether compensation is due to creators, to determining the structure and specifics of a remuneration system. The discussion seems to be focused on a number of remuneration schemes, three of which deserve special attention. First, an…
The commercial teaching kit use the artist’s works in their entirety and encouraged the students to create their own art based on them. An art center that sold “art kits” for use by children made a fair use of six of an artist’s works that it included in full in its kits because it drew…
The concept of lawfulness in relation to user status or user acts has been gradually established in EU digital copyright law as a condition for the enjoyment of certain copyright exceptions. However, the concept has proliferated inconsistently, lacking a clear normative content and shape. There is variant terminology: “lawful acquirer of a computer program” or…
Introduction It took more than three years after the deadline to implement the CDSM Directive in Poland. The new copyright law, the amended Polish Copyright and Related Rights Act of 1994, entered into force in the early autumn of 2024. Poland is the last country, after Bulgaria, to implement the CDSM Directive. During the five…
Introduction Ever since digital online transactions became ubiquitous from the late 1990s onward, the copyright world has been grappling with metadata problems. Metadata can generally be defined as “data about data”, where for example the musical recording is the central data point, and the song’s title, composer(s), performer(s), etc. are the metadata. Incorrect or missing…
Digitalization has transformed the way in which we obtain access to copyright-protected content and for how long we can preserve access. Traditionally, the purchase of the tangible copy of a work afforded the buyer or every lawful acquirer of the tangible copy the possibility to enjoy the work as long as the physical object incorporating…
We have so far seen a considerable (and increasing) discussion on AI and copyright infringement, especially in terms of how current exceptions such as TDM and fair use apply and whether new exceptions or remuneration models are needed. One question on which there has been little discussion is whether the reproduction right is triggered when…
Welcome back for the second part of the C-590/23 Pelham II hearing commentary. In part one (here), we covered the interpretation of pastiche. However, a very interesting topic arose in the Court’s pre-emptive questions, and during the oral questions: the interaction of “pastiche” with Article 17 CDSM Directive. This was not originally part of the…
On 14 January 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) heard oral arguments in the much-anticipated case C-590/23 Pelham II, where the German Federal Court submitted a request for preliminary ruling on the interpretation of “pastiche”. The purpose was to ascertain whether a two-second sample from a phonogram could fall under the…
