In the current debates on the ‘value gap’ provisions in the European Commission’s DSM proposal (Art. 13 and Recital 38, see here and, e.g., here), it has been suggested that these provisions would modify the current scope of the exclusive right of communication /making available to the public and the liability exemptions of the E-commerce…

From the Celestial Jukebox to AI. We have now reached the “Celestial Jukebox” predicted by Prof. Goldstein,[1] and have even gone well beyond with the rise of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. These key issues were at the heart of the annual IP conference organised by the University of Geneva on February 22, 2017 (programme…

1. Introduction As reported previously on the Kluwer Copyright Blog, on 22 September 2016 the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’ or ‘Court’) ruled on Case C-110/15 (Microsoft Mobile Sales International and others Vs MIBACT and SIAE) regarding the private copying exception in Article 5.2 b of Directive 2001/29/EC (the ‘InfoSoc Directive’). The…

On 8 February Advocate General Szpunar handed down his Opinion on Stichting Brein v Ziggo. The case is significant, as it represents the first time that the liability of an internet intermediary for copyright infringement will be considered by the CJEU. To date, all decisions handed down by that court on intermediary liability have instead…

The CJEU has handed down a decision which is likely to land a fatal blow to the online streaming service TVCatchUp in their long running saga with free-to-air broadcasters. Background As we reported back in 2015, this reference to the CJEU by the UK Court of Appeal followed an appeal by the claimant broadcasters against…

The right of communication to the public has proved to be one of the most intriguing concepts of EU copyright law. The CJEU has had to decide on its scope of application in a variety of cases both in the analogue (See the seminal SGAE case C-306/05) and in the digital world (See: Svensson case…

On 25 January 2017, the CJEU handed down a very interesting judgment in case C-367/15, concluding that Article 13 of Directive EC 2004/48 (better known as “the Enforcement Directive”) does not prevent a national regulation from stating that when an intellectual property right (“IPR”) has been infringed, the IPR owner may claim an amount corresponding…

Readers familiar with EU copyright law will recall that national courts of the EU Member States are able to issue injunctions against ISPs (providers of internet access) ordering them to prevent their customers from accessing websites infringing copyright by blocking access to the websites (UPC Telekabel Wien v Constantin Film C-314/12) by reference to Article…

Placing a copyright-infringing armchair in a hotel lobby does not qualify as “distribution”, but displaying a photo of it on the hotel’s website does qualify as “making available” under copyright law.  This is the outcome of a recent Austrian Supreme Court judgment, notable for its reversal of the decision of that same court in the…

On December 8th 2016, Advocate General (AG) Campos Sánchez-Bordona delivered his opinion in Case C‑527/15- Stichting Brein v Jack Frederik Wullems, acting under the name of Filmspeler (Filmspeler). This opinion may pave the way for a broader interpretation of the concept of ´communication to the public´ under Article 3 (1) of the InfoSoc Directive. By…