The European Copyright Society (ECS) has issued a series of insightful Comments on the implementation of the CDSM Directive’s provisions, which aim to serve as guidelines for policy options for the implementation of the Directive in the Member States. Part I of this post outlined the Comments on the implementation of Articles 8 and 12,…

Overview After fierce lobbying, European press publishers, backed by the French government, obtained the much criticized press publishers’ right (see e.g. here; here; and here) in Article 15 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market (CDSM Directive). The objective of this new right is to allow the media…

Earlier this month, the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland issued a long-awaited judgment on the assessment of constitutionality of Article 79(1)(3)(b) of the Copyright and Related Rights Act (judgment of 5 November 2019, reference no. P 14/19). This provision entitles the entity whose copyright has been infringed to demand from the infringer a…

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…

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…

The Supreme Court clarified the circumstances under which private copying levies should be paid by importers of cell phones, and reached the conclusion that if two technically independent devices have such a close connection that they together make up one device, such device could be subject to the provisions regarding private copying levies. Case date: 29…

The Tallinn Circuit Court finally and definitively determined the action in the “blank tape levy” court case. This landmark court case had been pending since February 2013, when the authors’, performers’ and phonogram producers’ collecting societies initially filed their complaint against the Government of the Republic of Estonia. During the litigation, the case was reviewed…

The Supreme Court confirmed that performing artists (performers) have a mandatory right to equitable remuneration from broadcasters or movie producers as consideration for the statutory assignment of most of their rights to broadcasters and producers.  Moreover, the Court declared that in award calculation two methods of fixing the amount of remuneration are possible: either as…

The Spanish Supreme Court has annulled some of the rules regulating the system of financing fair compensation for private copying through the General State Budget on the grounds that they are incompatible with EU law. The system that had been in place up until now was analysed by the CJEU through a number of questions…

Background, Facts, and Questions On 22 September 2016 the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’ or ‘Court’) ruled on Case C-110/15 – Microsoft Mobile Sales International and others. (The case was formerly known as Nokia Italia and Others before Nokia Italia SpA changed its name to Microsoft Mobile Sales International Oy.) This is yet…