Repair and maintenance information is often crucial for the repair of today’s increasingly complex and computerised products and devices. Copyright’s subsistence in repair manuals and information can run contrary to the public interest in access and dissemination of this information, leading to the premature product obsolescence and abandonment. The InfoSoc Directive’s non-mandatory exception for the…

In August 2022, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation published a study on EU copyright and related rights and access to and reuse of scientific publications, including open access. The study analyses the relationship between EU copyright law and access to and reuse of scientific publications, including open access, as well as potential…

Part 1 of this post outlined augmented reality (AR) technology, its applications in the cultural heritage sector and its potential copyright implications. This part discusses the relevant copyright exceptions and limitations.   Exceptions enabling AR for fostering education and participation in cultural life Currently, EU law does not contain any broad clause enabling exploitations related…

Augmented Reality (AR) is a fast-evolving technology enabling the overlap of digital images with those from the real world. It makes use of several technological developments and in particular computing devices with wireless connectivity that let the user connect to the Internet and other devices in different places. Part 1 of this post outlines the…

In 2019, the EU’s Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive (CDSMD) was adopted. This included the highly controversial Articles 15 and 17 on, respectively, the new press publishers’ right (PPR) and the new copyright liability scheme for OCSSPs (“online content-sharing services providers”). In a report published in September 2022, I undertook research into the…

In 2019, the EU’s Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive (CDSMD) was adopted. This included the highly controversial Articles 15 and 17 on, respectively, the new press publishers’ right (PPR) and the new copyright liability scheme for “online content-sharing services providers” (OCSSPs). In a report published in September 2022, I undertook research into the…

The Conseil d’Etat, the French administrative Supreme Court, handed down an important ruling on 15 November 2022 which annuls Order no. 2021-580 of 12 May 2021 (‘2021 Order’) of the French Government that implements articles 2(6) and 17 to 23 of the EU Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market…

In April 2021, the Austrian Supreme Court referred two questions of principle to the CJEU concerning the activity of a satellite TV package provider (Austrian Supreme Court, 4Ob195/20k). On 22 September 2022, the Advocate General provided his opinion on the case. The questions referred can be summarised as follows: Is Article 1(2)(b) of the Satellite…

    COMMUNIA and Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte co-hosted the Filtered Futures conference on 19 September 2022 to discuss fundamental rights constraints of upload filters after the CJEU ruling on Article 17 of the copyright directive. This blog post is the author’s contribution to the conference’s first session “Fragmentation or Harmonisation? The impact of the Judgement…

This is the second of a set of two blog posts (see Part 1 here) which analyses the limitations to parties’ freedom to determine the law applicable to contracts aimed at the exploitation of protected content online. It discusses the concept of overriding mandatory provisions and its potential application to relevant rules of (copyright) contract…