The Court of Appeal confirmed that playing phonograms in a night club requires authorisation from and payment to the relevant right holders (performers and artists). On the question of damages, the Court confirmed that the award of punitive-like damages should be limited to cases of serious and repeated infringement. In the present case, as this…
Introduction and background Case C-265/16, VCAST, concerns the question of whether the private copying exception covers the services of an online platform that allows users to store copies of free-to-air TV programmes in private cloud storage spaces. In his opinion of 7 September 2017 (discussed here), Advocate General (AG) Szpunar proposed a mixed answer to…
The French Supreme Court held that the costs relating to the blocking measures ordered by the courts are strictly necessary for the preservation of the intellectual property rights and that the courts may order the internet service providers and search engine providers to bear such costs. Case date: 6 July 2017 Court: Court of Cassation of France,…
A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law and the case has been discussed on the Kluwer Copyright Blog here. The CJEU held that Article 9, particularly the concept of ‘access to cable of broadcasting services’, must be interpreted as not covering or permitting national legislation which provides that copyright…
On 14 June 2017, the CJEU handed down its highly anticipated decision in Case C-610/15, Stichting Brein v Ziggo. As was reported on this blog when the Advocate General’s Opinion was released, the case represents the first time that the liability proper (i.e. for damages, as opposed to mere injunctions) of an internet intermediary for…
Computer games are becoming more and more important, not only in everyday life but also in legal theory. The German Federal Supreme Court has now issued a decision on the online game World of Warcraft (decision of 06.10.2016, I ZR 25/15 – World of Warcraft I). In this decision, the Court addressed questions regarding the…
A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law The Court of Appeal agreed with the High Court’s decision that the defence raised by a pub owner who had been showing football matches using a domestic satellite decoder from a foreign broadcaster was not valid, as there was not a sufficient…
In the current debates on the ‘value gap’ provisions in the European Commission’s DSM proposal (Art. 13 and Recital 38, see here and, e.g., here), it has been suggested that these provisions would modify the current scope of the exclusive right of communication /making available to the public and the liability exemptions of the E-commerce…
On 8 February Advocate General Szpunar handed down his Opinion on Stichting Brein v Ziggo. The case is significant, as it represents the first time that the liability of an internet intermediary for copyright infringement will be considered by the CJEU. To date, all decisions handed down by that court on intermediary liability have instead…
Readers familiar with EU copyright law will recall that national courts of the EU Member States are able to issue injunctions against ISPs (providers of internet access) ordering them to prevent their customers from accessing websites infringing copyright by blocking access to the websites (UPC Telekabel Wien v Constantin Film C-314/12) by reference to Article…
