Introduction On 30 June 2017, the German “Bundestag” adopted the “Act to Align Copyright Law with the Current Demands of the Knowledge-based Society” (“Urheberrechts-Wissensgesellschafts-Gesetz- UrhWissG”). It essentially reforms the terms of use of copyright protected works in the fields of education and research and will come into force on 1 March 2018. This new Act…
Decision of the German Bundesgerichtshof of April 27, 2017, file no. I ZR 247/15: “AIDA Kussmund” (“AIDA Kissmouth”) In “AIDA Kissmouth”, the German Bundesgerichtshof (“BGH”), Germany’s highest civil court, ruled on the interpretation of the “works in public places” exception pursuant to § 59 (1) German Copyright Act that implements Art. 5 (3) lit. h Directive 29/2001…
As we enter a new year, we would like to take this opportunity to pass on our best wishes for 2018 to all of our readers, as well as reflect on developments in copyright over the past year. Last year was a busy one in the copyright world, with a number of landmark CJEU decisions,…
This post was first published on the new Kluwer Regulating for Globalization Blog. On September 14, 2017, the EU Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling in Case C-177/16, Akka-Laa, on excessive pricing in the collective management of copyright licences. In 2013, the Latvian Competition Council fined Akka-Laa for abusing its dominance by imposing too…
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…
Have you ever given an idea to a friend, who then weaved that idea into their work? Did you feel that you should be recognised for your idea being included even though what you contributed was rather high level? Two weeks ago, in the UK judgment Nicholas Martin v Julia Kogan [2017] EWHC 2927 (IPEC),…
Introduction On 30th June 2017, the EU approved Regulation 2017/1128/EU on the cross-border portability of online content services (OJEU 30.6.17 L168) (the “Regulation”). The new Regulation introduces to the EU copyright framework the right for users to access portable services to which they have subscribed in one Member State when they are temporarily resident in another…
To ensure you don’t miss out on interesting IP law developments reported on our other IP blogs, we will, on a regular basis, provide you with an overview of the top 3 most-read posts from each of our IP law blogs. Here are the top posts from September, October and November. Top 3 Kluwer Copyright…
The Austrian Supreme Court has recently shed some light on the requirements for the admissible quotation of photos (judgment of 26 September 2017, 4Ob81/17s). In this case, a photographer had taken photos of a poacher who was killed in 1982. The competent collecting society sued a private TV-broadcasting station for their unauthorised use of one…
In this case the Supreme Court of Estonia analyses the legal issues involved in providing internet marketing services via Facebook and Google Adwords platforms. The court emphasises that the information, which was created during the performance of the contract of services, is not copyrightable subject matter. “Works” means only original results in the literary, artistic…
