Act no. 2021-1382 of 25 October 2021 on the regulation and protection of access to cultural works in the digital age has been published in the Official Journal. It modifies the French Intellectual Property Code (‘IPC’). The Act creates ‘ARCOM’ (the Authority for the regulation of audiovisual and digital communication), a new regulatory authority with…
The European Audiovisual Observatory (“EAO”) has recently published the Mapping report on national remedies against online piracy of sports content (“Report”), conducted at the request of the European Commission. Through a comparative perspective, the Report examines the scope of protection of audiovisual sports content in the national framework of the 27 EU member states and…
The European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has recently published a report on Online Copyright Infringement in the European Union. The report examines the consumption of copyright-infringing content in the EU Member States and the UK between January 2017 and December 2020. The underlying data covers access to TV programmes, music and film, using a variety of…
For anyone interested in the discussions about automated content filtering, Christmas came early this week: On Monday YouTube published the first edition of its Copyright Transparency Report. The report that covers copyright enforcement actions on the platform for the period from January to June of this year provides much needed insights into how YouTube’s various…
De minimis analysis involves the substantiality of the copying, not the use to which the infringing work is put; by definition, wholesale copying of a protected work cannot be de minimis copying. A company that owned a website on which it unknowingly displayed a photographer’s photo without authorization could not assert a de minimis defense…
The growing proclivity of issuing “dynamic injunctions” to block the online illegal diffusion and distribution of audio-visual copyrighted content has recently caught the attention of several scholars (see here, here and here). In fact, the preventive nature of the rights involved, the need to preclude imminent damage, and the fact that most IP addresses targeted…
Like most copyright systems, French copyright law does not leave much room for the freedom of authors of transformative graphic works (also called “derivative works”). Three interesting cases on derivative works, two involving Jeff Koons and one Tintin, have recently put French copyright law in the international spotlight (e.g. here and here). The American transformative…
A builder of sunrooms allegedly adapted the brochure for online use without permission, but the designer’s application with the Copyright Office was still pending when she filed suit. A graphic designer’s copyright infringement claim against a builder of sunroom additions—which allegedly modified and used online a print brochure that she had designed for the builder—was…
Voluntary dismissal of infringement claim did not negate an attorney fee award of over $40,000 for non-infringement counterclaim. An award of attorney fees based on a John Doe defendant’s counterclaim for non-infringement, which was filed in response to infringement claims brought against him by an adult film producer, was affirmed by the U.S. Court of…
“Copyright troll” Design Basics failed to show that copyrighted home designs and allegedly infringing floor plans were “virtually identical.” An infringement suit by Design Basics, LLC, which holds copyrights in thousands of single-family home floor plans and has brought hundreds of infringement suits against homebuilders nationwide, was properly dismissed because Design Basics failed to prove…
