Case Law, Collective management, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Jurisdiction, Remuneration (equitable)

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

“In essence, the disputes relate to the collecting societies’ intent to have intermediary suppliers pay levies on computers, printers and or plotters marketed in Germany. The suppliers, for their part, argued that some of the devices in question (namely printers and plotters) are incapable of autonomous copying.” On June 27, 2013, the CJEU delivered its…

Case Law, European Union, Infringement, Jurisdiction, Reproduction (right of), United Kingdom

(CIPIL, University of Cambridge)/ /1 Comment

“Before finalising its decision however, it is seeking the CJEU’s input on whether end users, who view web-pages on their computers without downloading or printing them, are committing infringements of copyright if they lack a licence from the rightholder.” On 29 June 2013 the UK Supreme Court referred a series of questions in Case C-360/13 Public…

Communication (right of), Infringement, Legislative process, Poland

(Institute of Intellectual Property Law, Jagiellonian University Kraków)/ /1 Comment

How the Polish broadcasting law on must-carry and must-offer makes broadcasters choose whether to infringe copyright and licensing contracts or the Polish Broadcasting Act. This post is about a rare mixture of folly and incompetence that is fortunately unlikely to leave any durable traces on the face of copyright law in Europe. However, the utter…

Case Law, Infringement, Jurisdiction, Moral rights, Netherlands

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

“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…

European Union, Jurisdiction, Liability

(CIPIL, University of Cambridge)/ /Leave a comment

“AG Jääskinen declined to classify Google as a “controller” of the data included on the pages indexed by its search engine within the meaning of article 1(d) of the Data Protection Directive.” The CJEU’s Advocate General Niilo Jääskinen issued an Opinion  on 25 June advising the Court to refrain from allowing citizens the right to require Google…

Case Law, Digital Single Market, Germany, Making available (right of)

(Institute of Legal Informatics, Leibniz Universität Hannover)/ /Leave a comment

“The BGH thus insinuates that framing may be a yet “unnamed right of exploitation” within the scope of Art. 15(2) Copyright Act.” On 16th May 2013 the first Senate of the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH), delivered its judgment in another case revolving around the issue of hyperlinking or framing. If one had hoped…

Case Law, Collective management, Latvia, Neighbouring rights

(Albert Ludwig University, Freiburg)/ /Leave a comment

“The Cabinet of Ministers has failed to assess impact of technology development onto blank tapes and equipment to be used for reproduction and thus imposable with blank tape levy.” (Judgement Constitutional Court, 14.3). Last year, the Satversmes tiesa, the Constitutional Court of Latvia, had to deal with the first copyright case since its establishment in…

Case Law, France, Jurisdiction, Neighbouring rights, Performers' Rights

(REALEX)/ /Leave a comment

“The Supreme Court considers that the participants in the reality TV program had no role to play and that there was no text. They were simply asked to be themselves and express their reactions to the situations they faced. The artificial nature of these situations was not enough to give them the quality of actors.”…

Case Law, France, Jurisdiction, Ownership

(REALEX)/ /Leave a comment

“The law of the country where protection is sought governs all matters relating to the exercise and enjoyment of copyright, including the determination of the rights holder.” Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works provides that “The enjoyment and the exercise of these rights shall not be subject…

Enforcement, Estonia, Infringement, Software

(Palladium Attorneys at Law)/ /Leave a comment

In a relatively recent judgement in a criminal case, the Supreme Court of Estonia ruled that that the terms  ‘trade scale’ and  ‘commercial scale’ are not synonymous. The concept ‘commercial scale’ in criminal law cannot be interpreted in such a broad sense as the concept ‘trade scale’. A. Gubinski allegedly committed a copyright infringement, therewith…