This blogpost is part of a series marking the publication of the fourth edition of the book Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights, edited by Daniel Gervais and João Pedro Quintais. The blogpost provides a short presentation of the authors’ chapter (with Franciska Schönherr): “Limitation-based remuneration rights as a compromise between access and remuneration…
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…
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…
On 7 May 2024, Open AI published its approach to data and AI (ADAI). This statement sets out OpenAI’s vison for a ‘social contract for content in AI’. In this vision, OpenAI shares its own perception of its contribution to creative ecosystems, but also its understanding of some of the legal implications of its business…
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is about to write yet another chapter in the never-ending, or so it seems, ‘Metall auf Metall’ saga. The facts of the case are all too familiar by now: in 2004, German band Kraftwerk took hip hop producer Moses Pelham to court for copyright infringement after…
The purpose of copyright, at its very basic level, finds its normative implementation in the interplay between access to protected works and the protection of the moral and material interest of creators (see Geiger, 2017). The social contract of copyright, which main purpose is to realize a broader collective concern, the access of citizens to…
This contribution was posted first on 17 January 2023 on The Digital Constitutionalist under the title: Safeguarding the Constitutional Role of Media as Fourth Estate of Democracy: Copyright as a Regulatory Framework for Freedom of Expression and Access to Information Online. In September 2022, the European Commission published its draft European Media Freedom Act…
In Safarov v. Azerbaijan (Appl. no. 885/12) the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) finds that the defendant State violated Article 1 of Protocol No.1 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). In its judgment of 1 September 2022, the Court determines that Azerbaijan failed to enforce copyright…
This blog post is a scene-setter for the GFF/COMMUNIA conference “Filtered Futures – Fundamental Rights Constraints of Upload Filters after the CJEU Ruling on Article 17 of the Copyright Directive” taking place in Berlin on September 19, 2022. A live stream of the conference will be available here. In three sessions, contributors will be examining…
In this contribution, we look at the future of content moderation after the recent decision of the Grand Chamber of the CJEU of 26 April 2022 on the validity of Article 17 CDSM with regard to freedom of expression. This decision is a crucial turn for a number of reasons, the main one being that…
