Netherlands

Case Law, CDSM Directive, CJEU, Communication (right of), Digital Single Market, European Union, Liability, Netherlands

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

On 12 June 2019, the High Court of the Netherlands referred four questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for a preliminary ruling. The questions concern an ongoing battle between Stichting Brein, a Dutch anti-piracy organisation representing movie and music industries, and NSE (News-Service.com), an online platform for Usenet services. Stichting…

Case Law, CJEU, Distribution (right of), European Union, Exhaustion, Netherlands, Reproduction (right of)

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

Part 1 of this post discussed the legislative history and significance of the CJEU referral in Tom Kabinet. This part will illustrate content and implications of the three classificatory dichotomies, explain why EU copyright law needs digital exhaustion, and propose interpretative solutions for the CJEU to help with this, leveraging the occasion offered by the…

CJEU, Distribution (right of), European Union, Exhaustion, Netherlands, Reproduction (right of)

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

After years of contradictory decisions and obiter dicta, on April 2, 2019 the CJEU held the first hearing in Tom Kabinet (C-263/18), a Dutch referral that promises to solve once and for good the question of admissibility of digital exhaustion under Art. 4(2) InfoSoc. Against the legislative silence, Tom Kabinet puts the Court at a…

Case Law, CJEU, Distribution (right of), European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Exhaustion, Netherlands, Reproduction (right of)

/ /Leave a comment

Introduction: digital exhaustion One of the main limitations to the right of distribution in European copyright law is the principle or rule of exhaustion. This rule, known as the first sale doctrine in US law, means that the right of distribution is exhausted by the first sale or other transfer of ownership of a copy…

Case Law, CJEU, Digital Single Market, Enforcement, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Germany, Infringement, Legislative process, Liability, Netherlands, Originality, Press Publishers ’ Right, Text and Data Mining (TDM)

/ /Leave a comment

As we enter a new year, we would like to take this opportunity to pass on our best wishes for 2019 to all of our readers, as well as reflect on developments in copyright over the past year.  Last year was a busy one in the copyright world, with a number of landmark CJEU decisions,…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Netherlands, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable)

(IViR)/ /Leave a comment

On 13 November 2018, the CJEU clarified the scope of EU copyright law by excluding works of taste from copyright protection. This marks the end of a three-year long dispute, which arose in 2015 between two cheese producers and was based on the idea that the taste of a food product is copyright protected. In…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Netherlands, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable)

(IViR)/ /Leave a comment

On 4 June 2018, one of the core concepts of copyright – the copyright work – was disputed at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The “cheese battle”, which started in 2015 at the Court of First Instance in Gelderland (the Netherlands) between HEKS’NKAAS (applicant) and ‘Witte Wievenkaas’ (defendant), resulted in a…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Netherlands, Originality, Subject matter (copyrightable)

(IViR)/ /Leave a comment

Whether taste constitutes protectable subject-matter under EU copyright law is one of the questions which the CJEU will have to answer in the near future. Indeed, the Dutch Court of Appeals of Arnhem-Leeuwarden has, in the course of an appeal procedure (only available in Dutch), turned to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling on the…

Case Law, Duration, Netherlands, Transfer (of right)

(Schulich School of Law )/ /Leave a comment

‘Please go!’ said pop group Golden Earring to their music publisher Nanada when they put an end to their publishing contract! As it sometimes happens in long-standing relationships, the once harmonious author/publisher cooperation had deteriorated to such an extent that a break-up was inevitable. Unfortunately, Golden Earring’s way of going about it brought both parties…

Conference, European Union, Netherlands, Remedies, Software

(Institute for Information Law (IViR) ) and (Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /1 Comment

Blockchain technology seems to be all the rage nowadays. In simple terms, blockchain enables parties who do not know or trust each other to maintain a common set of records without the need for a trusted third party intermediary. Bitcoin, the first major successful cryptocurrency, uses blockchain to keep track of the supply and flow…