Yes, e-lending can land itself a spot under the public lending right. That is what the European Court of Justice held in its preliminary ruling in the case between Vereniging Openbare Bibliotheken v. Stichting Leenrecht (10 November 2016, case C‑174/15). The decision clarifies the Rental and Lending Rights Directive’s scope of application. It is an…
In a recent decision (case C-169/15), the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that Directive 93/98/EEC harmonising the term of protection of copyright in the EU does not have the effect of restoring or reviving rights that, prior to its entry into force (1 July 1995), were for any reason in the…
Decision of the German Bundesgerichtshof of July 28, 2016, file no. I ZR 9/15: “Auf fett getrimmt” (“trimmed to the fat”). In accordance with the CJEU decision in Deckmyn v. Vrijheidsfonds/Vandersteen (C-201/13), the Bundesgerichtshof (“BGH”) as Germany’s highest civil court supported a broad interpretation of the term “parody” in its recent decision “Auf fett getrimmt”,…
Following a referendum on 23 June 2016, 51.9% of UK voters said “yes” to Brexit. British Prime Minister Theresa May revealed earlier this month that Article 50 TEU will be triggered by March 2017, marking the beginning of the formal withdrawal process. It is hard to predict the impact of Brexit on the current copyright…
The federal district court in New York City correctly dismissed Joel R. McDonald’s amended complaint against musicians and record producers Kanye West, Shawn Carter (“Jay Z”), and others because the defendants’ song “Made in America” was not substantially similar to McDonald’s song with the same title, either in terms of lyrical content or musical structure,…
Lawful acquirers of computer programs cannot resell back-up copies of the programs. This is according to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in case C-166/15 (Ranks/Vasiļevičs v. Finanšu un ekonomisko noziegumu izmeklēšanas prokoratūra/Microsoft Corp). The circumstances of the case were that two persons sold, on an online marketplace, used copies of computer…
A new French Law provides that search engines using thumbnails will have to pay royalties via a compulsory collective management for the reproduction of photographs and images. The French Act No. 2016-925 of 7 July 2016 on freedom of creation, architecture and cultural heritage contains several provisions on copyright that modify the intellectual property Code…
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 August and September. Top 3 Kluwer Copyright Blog…
As has by now been extensively reported, on 14th September the European Commission released its new copyright reform package. Prominent within this is its proposal for a new Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. The proposal contains an array of controversial offerings, but from the perspective of this intermediary liability blogger, the most…
What is an appropriate royalty for a broadcaster to pay for the right to include music in its broadcasts? This is a question the UK Copyright Tribunal considered recently in a rather dry but comprehensive decision. The decision was under Section 126 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (“CDPA”) relating to a dispute…
