“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….
ECHR Decision of the ECtHR (5th section) of 19 February 2013. Case of Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi (The Pirate Bay) v. Sweden, Appl. nr. 40397/12. By Dirk Voorhoof, Ghent University and Inger Høedt-Rasmussen, Copenhagen Business School. The criminal conviction of the co-founders of The Pirate Bay for infringement of copyright does not violate…
Last week, the European Court of Justice ruled in a preliminary ruling that live streaming of television channels is a ‘communication to the public’ within the meaning of the EU Copyright Directive (Directive 2001/29). Therefore, the website TVCatchup, a free streaming service that offers over fifty channels of UK television on computers, smartphones and other…
Besides tulips, cheese, football and other recreational matters, the Netherlands are famous for its copyright protection of non-original writings. Geschriftenbescherming, as the Dutch call this legal anomaly (and only they know how to pronounce it), is a remnant of an ancient eighteenth-century printer’s right that lives on until this day in the Dutch Copyright Act…
“However, in none of the studied countries, e-lending activities rely on a statutory copyright or lending right exception.” By Kelly Breemen and Vicky Breemen, Institute for Information Law, Amsterdam (IViR). Public libraries in various countries are increasingly involved in e-lending practices. Thus far, these practices are largely based on contractual agreements between the parties concerned…
“Yet, in contrast to the legislative measures that had been previously contemplated, this deal is only of a stand-alone character and will not affect the situation of smaller aggregators.” A while back we reported on the clash between search giant Google and media organisations in, among other countries, France over the former’s news aggregating service…
The European Copyright Society, a group of prominent European scholars, today issued an opinion on the Svensson case (Case C-466/12), which is currently before the European Court of Justice. The case, which was referred to the Court by the Swedish Court of Appeal (Svea hovrätt) on 18 October 2012, raises the important question whether setting…
“The latest development is that GEMA has filed another lawsuit against YouTube, demanding from YouTube to take down the on-screen notice ‘Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights.’” YouTube and GEMA (the German Society for musical performing and mechanical…
“In the absence of any claim from the phonogram producer, or its assigns, the natural or legal person who publicly, peacefully and unambiguously exploits recordings, is deemed to be the holder of the rights in the recordings as regards third parties against whom an infringement case is brought.” The French Intellectual Property Code deals with…
Private copying (PC) levies have for long been one of the most hotly debated topics in EU copyright law and policy. It is a common area for discussion between rightholders, collective rights management organizations (CMOs), the Consumer Electronics/ICT industries and even consumer representative associations. At the EU level, PC levies have been on the harmonization…
