European Union

AG Opinion, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Case Law, CDSM Directive, CJEU, Digital Single Market, European Union, Round-up

(University College London) and (Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /1 Comment

Welcome to the second trimester of the 2023 round up of EU copyright law! In this series, every three months we update you on what has happened 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 previous round-ups…

Communication (right of), Distribution (right of), European Union, Exhaustion, NFTs, United Kingdom

(KU Leuven Brussels) and (City, University of London)/ /Leave a comment

Part I of this blog introduced the first of three ambiguities NFT purchasers may face. In this part II we discuss two additional aspects, with a focus on UK copyright law and the EU copyright acquis.   The First Sale Doctrine in the Metaverse The first sale doctrine, also referred to as the ‘principle of…

European Union, NFTs, Ownership, United Kingdom

(KU Leuven Brussels) and (City, University of London)/ /Leave a comment

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are altering society’s notion of digital ‘ownership’ and redefining the common perspective on distribution of original works to consumers by introducing scarcity to the digital realm. Although frequently misconstrued, this technology represents an exceptional advancement that can yield enormous revenue streams for both creators and consumers by altering the digital representation of…

Case Law, CJEU, Communication (right of), European Union

(University of Cyprus)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Authorship, CDSM Directive, Contract, Digital Single Market, European Union, France, International Agreement, United Kingdom, USA

(Potter Clarkson LLP and King's College London)/ /1 Comment

Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at the Columbia Law School Jane C. Ginsburg recently visited London, where she delivered her lecture in memory of a well-known legal scholar – Professor William (Bill) Rodolph Cornish. Described as “an intellectual property pioneer and modern legal historian”, his untimely death in January 2022 was a blow…

European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Germany, Infringement

(Morrison Foerster)/ /Leave a comment

“No artist starts from scratch in a vacuum”. This finding of the Berlin Regional Court seems obvious. But copyright law faces daunting challenges when copyrighted material not only inspires a creative process, but becomes the very object of it. From Italian opera to Andy Warhol to memes – incorporating and referencing other works has always…

European Union, Legislative process

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The members of the European Copyright Society (ECS) have recently sent a letter to Mr. Thierry Breton (Commissioner for Internal Market, European Commission) outlining their view of what should be the priorities for a future agenda in the field of copyright law. The letter is available here and its contents are reproduced below.   The…

CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Liability

(Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna)/ /Leave a comment

The H2020 project reCreating Europe performed an unprecedented mapping of EU and Member States’ sources on copyright flexibilities. Part I of this blog post explained the mapping of EU sources and their conclusions. Part II deals with the comparative analysis of the law of all 27 Member States, with related comparative findings. The mapping of…

Artificial Intelligence (AI), European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Fair Use, Legislative process, Liability, Text and Data Mining (TDM), USA

(Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /2 Comments

TLDR   Generative AI is one of the hot topics in copyright law today. In the EU, a crucial legal issue is whether using in-copyright works to train generative AI models is copyright infringement or falls under existing text and data mining (TDM) exceptions in the Copyright in Digital Single Market (CDSM) Directive. In particular,…

Collective management, Contract, European Union, Italy, Remuneration (equitable)

(Luiss Guido Carli University)/ /2 Comments

The removal of SIAE’s repertoire from Meta’s social networks “This song is currently unavailable” or “The audio track in your reel is no longer available. You can replace the audio track once, which will also remove any original audio in your reel”. These are some of the messages appearing on Instagram or Facebook to users…