Summary In the case of Wright & Ors v BTC Core & Ors [2023] EWHC 222 the High Court was faced with a technical copyright question about whether literary copyright can subsist in the file format used for the Bitcoin System (the “Bitcoin File Format”). Justice Mellor concluded that copyright could not subsist in the…
The belated Portuguese transposition of the CDSM Directive was finally published in the Portuguese Official Journal (Diário da República) on the 19th of June 2023. The approved Decree-Law 47/2023 to a large extent corresponds to a legislative project (Project 52/XV), which, in turn, was a variation of a previous project (Project 114/XIV) that failed due…
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…
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…
In the case at hand there was a conflict due to the use of a work of art in the famous Spanish television programme “El Hormiguero” without the corresponding authorisation of the author. The work was used in a humorous section of the programme in the context of the apartment of a dirty and untidy…
On 20 April 2023, the Italian Civil Court of first instance of Florence (Tribunale civile di Firenze) issued a decision that held unlawful the reproduction by lenticular technique of the image of Michelangelo’s David and its juxtaposition with the image of a male model on the cover of GQ magazine. The reproduction was not authorized…
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…
In a recent judgment, the Supreme Court held that the appellant had not justified compelling interest in the appeal and, therefore, ruled the extraordinary cassation and breach of process appeals filed by the claimant inadmissible. This put an end to the dispute ongoing since 2016 concerning whether the role of an expert “professor” in the…
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…
“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…
