Case Law, Communication (right of), Digital Single Market, European Union, Making available (right of), Reproduction (right of), Sweden

(Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /Leave a comment

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…

Collective management, Germany, Infringement

(Institute of Legal Informatics, Leibniz Universität Hannover)/ /1 Comment

“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…

Case Law, France, Infringement, Jurisdiction, Neighbouring rights, Ownership

(REALEX)/ /Leave a comment

“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…

Collective management, European Union, Jurisdiction

(Institute for Information Law (IViR))/ /Leave a comment

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…

Case Law, European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, Jurisdiction

(Monducci Perri Spedicato & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

The CJEU states that Article 15(6) of Directive 2010/13/EU on short news reports is compatible with Articles 16 and 17 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. On 22 January 2013 the Court of Justice of the European Union handed down a decision on the compatibility of Article 15(6) of Directive 2010/13/EU…

France, Making available (right of), Reproduction (right of)

(Schulich School of Law )/ /1 Comment

Playing Catch 22 with cultural heritage is quite simple: since cultural heritage institutions hardly ever are in a position to digitize their collection because of a lack of financial resources, they obtain funding on the basis of public/private partnerships. Chances are that in return for the financial support needed for digitization, the private party will…

Legislative process, Making available (right of), Poland

(Institute of Intellectual Property Law, Jagiellonian University Kraków)/ /Leave a comment

The Polish Ministry of Administration and Digitisation has initiated discussion on the law providing free access to public resources. The Ministry has made available on its webpage a document entitled “Draft Guidelines for the Proposal of the Act on Open Public Resources” and has invited interested parties to comment. Thus a process of “open access…

Case Law, Exceptions and Limitations, France, Remuneration (equitable)

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

On 15 January 2013, the French Constitutional Council declared unconstitutional Article 6, paragraph II, of the law on private copying levy (Law No. 2011-1898). This provision retroactively validated private copying levies that had been paid or claimed based on rates annulled by the French Council of State. To fully understand the ruling of the Constitutional…

European Union, Exceptions and Limitations, France, Infringement, Jurisdiction

/ /1 Comment

ECtHR (5th section), 10 January 2013, case of Ashby Donald and others v. France, Appl. nr. 36769/08. By Dirk Voorhoof, Ghent University and Inger Høedt-Rasmussen, Copenhagen Business School. “Although the European Court did not find a violation of Article 10 in the case of Ashby Donald and others v. France, the judgment in this case…

Case Law, France, Jurisdiction, Originality, Software, Subject matter (copyrightable)

(REALEX)/ /1 Comment

The usefulness of a computer program is not sufficient to characterise the originality of the program. There is nothing more subjective, and often arbitrary and unfair, than the notion on which copyright protection is based: originality. Under French law, the Intellectual Property Code protects “the rights of authors in all works of the mind, whatever…