Germany

CJEU, Communication (right of), Digital Single Market, European Union, Germany, Infringement

(GFF (Society for Civil Rights))/ /Leave a comment

Yesterday the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) published its rulings on three long-standing copyright disputes involving fundamental rights. All three cases had been the subject of preliminary rulings by the CJEU last year, case C‑469/17 (Funke Medien), case C‑516/17 (Spiegel Online) and case C‑476/17 (Pelham). In the two press freedom-related cases, the German Federal Supreme…

CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, European Union, Germany

(GFF (Society for Civil Rights))/ /Leave a comment

A year after the adoption of Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, many questions about its compatibility with fundamental rights remain unanswered. Germany, the epicenter of public protests against the directive’s most controversial provisions, is also the origin of frequent fundamental rights-related requests for preliminary rulings on EU copyright…

Case Law, Germany, Infringement, Making available (right of), Software

(Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam)/ /Leave a comment

On 28 March 2019, the German Federal Court (BGH) was asked to review a lower court’s decision on the legality of the unauthorised uploading of the 30 day free trial version of Microsoft software on an online trader’s website. This gave the BGH the chance to further clarify the applicability of the German Copyright Act…

CJEU, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Germany, Infringement, Reproduction (right of)

(Institute for Information Law (IViR)) and (University College Dublin)/ /Leave a comment

The first part of this blogpost discussed the interpretation given to the right of phonogram producers under Article 2(c) of Directive 2001/29/EC (InfoSoc Directive) and Article 9(1)(b) of Directive 2006/115 (Rental and Lending Rights Directive) by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU or Court) in Pelham. Contrary to the Opinion of Advocate…

CJEU, European Union, Germany, Legislative process, Making available (right of), Press Publishers ’ Right

, (NORDEMANN)/ /Leave a comment

Following the CJEU’s judgment of 12 September 2019, the German national related right in favour of press publishers established in 2013 is unenforceable for formal reasons. But a new related right will be introduced shortly with the implementation of the DSM Directive. The competition law issues brought up in Germany will remain for the EU…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Germany, Infringement, Reproduction (right of)

(University College Dublin) and (Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /Leave a comment

On 29 July the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) finally rendered its long-awaited judgment in Case C-476/17, Pelham v Hütter and Schneider-Esleben., together with its judgments on two other cases: Case C-516/17, Spiegel Online GmbH v Volker Beck and Case C-469/17, Funke Medien NRW GmbH v Bundesrepublik Deutschland. All three cases are…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Germany

(NORDEMANN) and (University of Frankfurt)/ /Leave a comment

European Court of Justice decisions of July 29, 2019 (C-469/17  and C-516/17) The abuse of copyright as a “legal weapon” to suppress press reports is not a new development – for decades authors and rightholders have used their exclusive rights to prevent the publication of unpleasant information. The situation in practice The situation is always…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Germany

(University of Cyprus)/ /Leave a comment

The turbulent relationship between copyright law and the freedoms of information and expression lies at the heart of the recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the case Spiegel Online GmbH v Volker Beck (C 516/17). Part I of this blogpost critically overviewed the CJEU’s main principles of analysis…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Germany

(University of Cyprus)/ /Leave a comment

On 29 July 2019, the CJEU delivered its hotly awaited decision in the case Spiegel Online GmbH v Volker Beck (C 516/17). The decision is part of a trilogy of preliminary references raised by the German courts focusing on copyright exceptions and the interaction of copyright law with fundamental rights (Pelham, C‑476/17 and Funke Medien…

Case Law, Germany, Moral rights

(NORDEMANN) and (Boehmert & Boehmert)/ /Leave a comment

German Federal Supreme Court’s decisions of 21 February 2019 (ref.: I ZR 98/17, I ZR 99/17 and I ZR 15/18) Protection of moral rights in Germany, in particular the right to prohibit distortion of the work Moral rights derived from copyright are not harmonized within the European Union. Rather, every EU member state has developed…