Belgium, Collective management, Exceptions and Limitations, Infringement, Jurisdiction, Legislative process, Remuneration (equitable)

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Two contradictory legislative proposals have been quite recently submitted for discussion at the Belgian Parliament, which should implement solutions to the thorny file-sharing issue. On the one hand, Senators Morael and Pyryns proposed on 9 December 2010 [Doc 5-590/1] a law “aiming at adapting the perception of copyright to the technological evolution while preserving privacy…

Case Law, Communication (right of), European Union, Subject matter (copyrightable)

(Marx, Van Ranst, Vermeersch & Partners)/ /4 Comments

In case C 393/09, the ECJ decided that a GUI is not a form of expression of a computer program and cannot therefore be protected by copyright as a computer program under Directive 91/250/EEC. Indeed, that directive protects the forms of expression of a computer program and the preparatory design work capable of leading, respectively,…

Authorship, Case Law, Ownership, Transfer (of right)

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Bankruptcy brings always its share of bad surprises, and it usually gets dodgier when intellectual property is involved… In this post, we propose a review of a decision of the Belgian Supreme Court illustrating this observation in the software development sector. We will start with the legal provisions applied by the Court and its decision…

Belgium, Case Law, Infringement, Liability, Remedies, Reproduction (right of)

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A Belgian band uploaded some songs on a freely accessible website under a non-commercial & no derivative Creative Commons licence. A Belgian theatre used one of the songs to create an advertisement for the next theatrical season, which was broadcasted on several national radios channels. The Court found that the theatre did not respect the…

Authorship, Belgium, Case Law, Ownership, Transfer (of right)

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In its arrest of 3 June 2010, the Supreme Court of Belgium decided that the presumption of transfer to the employer of patrimonial copyrights in a program created within an employment relationship, does does not apply in a situation where a program is developed by the statutory manager of a limited liability company. Click here…