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…

Introduction In a previous post on this Blog, we analysed the EU case law relating to the emerging services of Cloud Service Providers (C-265/16, V-CAST), as well as the impact of the new EU Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM). More specifically, in the case between V-Cast and RTI, the CJEU ruled that…

On 11 November, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on an intellectual property action plan aimed at supporting the EU’s recovery and resilience. The recitals note the importance of balanced protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR) to the European economy as well as to the EU’s recovery and resilience, in particular to the…

For most of its existence, international copyright policy at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has focused on the creation and harmonization of exclusive rights. This state of play was only disrupted in 2004, when Chile first proposed to WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) that it explore the issue of limitations…

Earlier this week, the European Commission published a recommendation for a common European data space for cultural heritage. As Executive Vice-President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, Margrethe Vestager, explained, “[t]he tragic burning of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris showed the importance of digitally preserving culture and the lockdowns highlighted the need for…

Let’s imagine that, in the near future, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) receives a request for a preliminary ruling referring the following question: “Must Article 17(4) of Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market be interpreted as precluding a national law which allows copyright holders to bring…

On 21st October 2021, Facebook announced that it has reached an agreement with APIG, an association of French press publishers, committing itself to the payment of licensing fees pursuant to the press publishers’ right introduced by the 2019 Copyright Directive. According to Facebook’s press release, the agreement “means that people on Facebook will be able…

On the 16th of October 2020, one year ago, a middle-school teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded by a terrorist who would not know of his existence if not for a number of videos posted on social media, against which Mr. Paty had filed for defamation with the local police. Yet, a law against publishing heinous…

Welcome to the third trimester of 2021 round up of EU copyright law! In this series we update readers every three months on developments in EU copyright law. This includes Court of Justice (CJEU) and General Court judgments, Advocate Generals’ (AG) opinions, and important policy developments. You can read the first and second trimester round…