On 20 January, the Dutch court of appeals (Hof Amsterdam) gave its preliminary ruling in the case of Tom Kabinet. In this ruling the court had to consider whether the CJEU UsedSoft rationale applies to eBooks as well. Without giving a final judgment, the court indicated that it considers it quite likely that exhaustion of rights,…
When it comes to copyright it is a game of all or nothing. During the term that a copyright exists, the owner of a copyright has a monopoly on the work due to the exclusive rights of reproduction, distribution and communication to the public. When the copyright protection expires and the work enters the public…
Important ruling by Dutch Supreme Court on cable retransmission, film copyright and collective management of rights Guest blog by Prof. Dr D.J.G. Visser, Institute for Private Law, Leiden University “This could well mean that several Dutch collecting societies, in particular those representing actors, screenwriters and directors (Norma, Lira and Vevam) can no longer claim remuneration…
“The activity of the operator of a dedicated meta search engine (…) comes close to the manufacture of a parasitical competing product.” Christmas somewhat overshadowed the publication of a particularly interesting CJEU decision: case C-202/12 (Innoweb), dealing with the legal protection of databases in relation to meta search engines. The judgment was published on 19…
“In that case, the publication of an hyperlink is, in principle, not an autonomous communication to the public” It is a common fact that the sex-industry, along with the arms industry, is a driving force behind many new developments. Porn is a major force on the internet and it also shouldn’t come as a surprise…
“”The difficulty also lies in the fact that (to our knowledge) no levy system within the EU provided before Padawan for such a distinction and that the structure of the payment system did/does not lend itself easily to making such a distinction.” There’s nothing wrong with a private copying levy, the CJEU decided in SGAE/Padawan,…
“The occasional use of an unusual expression – such as “she has a black belt in shopping, so uh …” to describe the shopping behavior of Endstra’s wife – is not enough to make a copyrighted work of an otherwise banal or trivial designed conversation.” Amsterdam Court of Appeal, 16 Juli 2013 (Endstra heirs vs….
“When it is established or not contradicted that a reasonable remuneration has been offered, additional circumstances will be necessary in order to conclude that publication is indeed illegitimate.” In an interesting case about the portrait rights of the legendary Dutch football (soccer) player Johan Cruijff, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands recently ruled that a…
“The viewer will not experience it as real and will even consider it to be weird, amateurish or even ridiculous.” In a case about the use of the ‘house style’ of the Dutch police, the summary proceedings judge District Court Amsterdam ruled this week that the Dutch State has to give permission to the producer…
“The law does not allow for additional protection of the maker of a work against so-called slavish imitation of a style or of elements of style.” Supreme Court of the Netherlands, 29 March 2013 (Duijsens/Broeren). Although the legal concept of coat-tail riding is usually associated with trademark law, it is certainly not unfamiliar to copyright law….
