My first post for the Kluwer Copyright blog will touch upon an issue which over the years has gained increased attention from legislators: how to stimulate the digitization and online availability of the collections held by libraries, museums and other cultural institutions – sometimes referred to as our “common heritage” – and at the same…
Italy is currently being interested by an intense querelle about the role of the Communications Authority (“Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni”) in the enforcement of the provisions of Law n. 633/1941 (“Copyright Law”) with respect to users’ unauthorized posting of copyrighted contents online. The debate has become particularly hot after the Communications Authority has…
The football leagues in Europe seem to be on a losing streak in Luxembourg. On February 17 the European Court of Justice pronounced that Member States may reserve television coverage of FIFA World Cup events to free-to-air public broadcasters, on the basis of nationally drawn-up lists of ‘events of major importance’, as defined in the…
Discussions around a fair use defence are not new in The Netherlands. Already in the years immediately following the adoption of the EU Copyright Directive, the idea of introducing a fair use defence in the Dutch Copyright Act had given rise to heated debate, at least in the literature. The debate recently resurged when the…
Due to massive lobbying of the German press publishers, the new conservative-liberal German Government declared in its coalition contract in late 2009: “Press Publishers shall not be discriminated against other disseminators of copyright protected works [e.g. film or music producers]. Therefore we aim at the introduction of a neighbouring right for press publishers to increase…
A Belgian band uploaded some songs on a freely accessible website under a non-commercial & no derivative Creative Commons licence. A Belgian theatre used one of the songs to create an advertisement for the next theatrical season, which was broadcasted on several national radios channels. The Court found that the theatre did not respect the…
This is the first Greek copyright case about the liability for provision of links to works and other protected subject matter which have been uploaded to Internet without authorization. In the leading decision 965/2010, the three-member Misdemeanours Court of Kilkis was called to examine whether a website providing links to various contents posted in the…
National legislation implementing the Directive on the legal protection of designs (98/71/EC) may not exclude from copyright protection designs that were protected by a registered design right and entered into the public domain before the entry into force of said legislation, in so long as they meet the requirements to be eligible for copyright protection….
On 15 February 2011, the Spanish Parliament adopted the Ley de Economía Sostenible (Sustainable Economy Act). This act aims at turning Spain’s economic model into a more sustainable one from not only a economic but also social and environmental point of view. Among many other issues, this act includes some very controversial provisions amending three…
Football listings have hit the UK again, this time with an “original” twist.Disputes surrounding football lists never seem to go out of fashion. On 9 December 2010, the High Court yet again was faced with issues of IP protection of football listings and other related statistical football information, subject matter somewhere on the borderline between…
