Part I of this blogpost was dedicated to the background which led to Articles 8-11 of the CDSM and to the concept of out of commerce works. Part II critically overviews the core of the mechanisms established by the Directive. The dual regime of the Directive The crux of the provisions certainly lies in the…

In Part I of this two-part post on Chapter 3 of the new Copyright Directive, I argued that Articles 18-23 were well-intentioned. It is now up to Member States to send clear signals of support to their creative community by not rendering these provisions ineffective. In addition, while there is ample opportunity to harmonise creator-protective…

Protected elements of illustrated children’s book were not substantially similar to defendants’ book and animated adaptation as a matter of law. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has affirmed a district court’s decision holding that an author of a children’s illustrated book failed to state a copyright infringement claim against media company Viacom International,…

Articles 8-11 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM) aim to establish a clear framework for the digitisation and dissemination, including across borders, of works or other subject matter that are considered to be out of commerce. Mass digitisation and the making available online of copyright protected content brought new dimensions…

Art. 2(2) of the DSM Directive defines ‘text and data mining’ as “any automated analytical technique aimed at analysing text and data in digital form in order to generate information which includes but is not limited to patterns, trends and correlations”. Text and data mining (TDM) generally refers to the computer-based analysis of large bodies…

A clothing company that knowingly included inaccurate information in its copyright application—which rendered its registration invalid—was ordered to pay $121,423 in costs and attorney fees to retail outlets that successfully defended themselves against infringement claims. In a copyright infringement action brought by clothing company Gold Value International Textile, Inc,. alleging infringement of its fabric design…

Chapter 3 of Title IV of the Directive encompasses a set of six articles specifically directed at authors and performers (henceforth ‘creators’). For many industry stakeholders, this set of articles goes hand in hand with the controversial article 17 (most recently discussed on the blog here, here and here). In conversation with Crispin Hunt, Chair…

Although the litigant was unsuccessful in her prior litigation, allowing her to proceed now by asserting facts completely opposite to those she asserted earlier would create the perception that the earlier court was misled. A litigant who previously had claimed that she was the co-author of a 1978 Julio Iglesias song was estopped from now…