On 20 April 2023 in the joined cases Blue Air ( C-775/21) and SNTFC (C-826/21) the CJEU pronounced once again on the infringement of the right of communication to the public, making a further contribution to the already rich case law in this field. This time the questions related to the existence (or not) of…
Grand Production d.o.o. v GO4YU GmbH (Case C‑423/21) The facts of the case are representative of the grey areas of the application of copyright territoriality in the digital era. The applicant, Grand Production d.o.o., is a Serbian company which produces television programs that are broadcast in Serbia by a TV channel, Prva Srpska Televizija. Another…
Almost 3 years after the adoption of the Digital Single Market (Directive (EU) 2019/790) (CDSM Directive), its transposition by the Member States (MS) has proved to be a significant challenge. During a fervent period of failed timely implementation efforts on many fronts (see here), MS need to be vigilant and ensure that the delicate balances…
On March 10th, 2022, the Advocate General (AG) Pitruzzella delivered his Opinion on the case RTL Television GmbH v Grupo Pestana S.G.P.S., S.A., et al (C-716/20). The case is an ideal example of the intricacy of the EU copyright law edifice regarding the right of communication to the public, which appears as a patchwork of…
This post is based on the chapter “Audiovisual Coverage of Sports Events and Copyright Law: Originality in the Details?” in Natalie Helberger, Joost Poort, Martin Senftleben, Mireille van Eechoud, Stef van Gompel (eds.). Intellectual Property and Sports: Essays in Honour of P. Bernt Hugenholtz, Kluwer Law International, 2021. The principle of non-protection of football matches…
This post is based on the chapter “Audiovisual Coverage of Sports Events and Copyright Law: Originality in the Details?” in Natalie Helberger, Joost Poort, Martin Senftleben, Mireille van Eechoud, Stef van Gompel (eds.). Intellectual Property and Sports: Essays in Honour of P. Bernt Hugenholtz, Kluwer Law International, 2021. The economic value of football broadcasting has…
On March 9th, 2021 the CJEU delivered its eagerly awaited decision on the VG Kunst case (C‑392/19). The facts of the case are interesting, since the question of the lawfulness of frame linking and of inline linking was not directly raised. Instead, it appears indirectly in the context of the assessment of licence terms requiring…
On 14 January 2021, Advocate General (AG) Szpunar delivered his Opinion in Case C‑762/19, SIA ‘CV-Online Latvia’ v SIA ‘Melons’, a further case relating to the database sui generis right. The application of the sui generis right to the activity of search engines was the main question raised in this case. Specifically, a specialist search…
The first part of this blogpost analysed the main theoretical foundations of the AG’s Opinion in the VG Bild-Kunst case (C‑392/19). The second part focuses on the application of this theoretical background to frame links and inline (automatic) links. As will be shown, the AG has proposed a methodological model of distinction between hyperlinks on…
On September 10, 2020 the Advocate General (AG) Maciej Szpunar delivered his Opinion on the case of VG Bild-Kunst v Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitzanother (C‑392/19), a further case concerning the legality of linking. The assessment of linking from an EU copyright law perspective appears to be a labyrinthine legal exercise, since, following the seminal Svensson (C‑466/12)…
