The ongoing Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution has machine learning models at its core. Contrary to classic computer programs written by developers, many of these models rely on vast artificial neural networks trained in giant amounts of data. In general, they use what is called a transformer architecture. No one individually writes or encodes these models;…

This contribution was posted first on 17 January 2023 on  The Digital Constitutionalist under the title: Safeguarding the Constitutional Role of Media as Fourth Estate of Democracy: Copyright as a Regulatory Framework for Freedom of Expression and Access to Information Online.   In September 2022, the European Commission published its draft European Media Freedom Act…

COMMUNIA and Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte co-hosted the Filtered Futures conference on 19 September 2022 to discuss fundamental rights constraints of upload filters after the CJEU ruling on Article 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSMD). This blog post is based on the author’s contribution to the conference’s third session “Beyond…

This blog post is a scene-setter for the GFF/COMMUNIA conference “Filtered Futures – Fundamental Rights Constraints of Upload Filters after the CJEU Ruling on Article 17 of the Copyright Directive” taking place in Berlin on September 19, 2022. A live stream of the conference will be available here. In three sessions, contributors will be examining…

In this contribution, we look at the future of content moderation after the recent decision of the Grand Chamber of the CJEU of 26 April 2022 on the validity of Article 17 CDSM with regard to freedom of expression. This decision is a crucial turn for a number of reasons, the main one being that…

There has been widespread press coverage of Meghan Markle’s (the Duchess of Sussex) recent success in a claim which she brought against the publishers of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and the Mail Online website (“the Mail”). In February 2021, the High Court granted Ms Markle summary judgment on her claim for misuse of…

On the 16th of October 2020, one year ago, a middle-school teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded by a terrorist who would not know of his existence if not for a number of videos posted on social media, against which Mr. Paty had filed for defamation with the local police. Yet, a law against publishing heinous…

Like most copyright systems, French copyright law does not leave much room for the freedom of authors of transformative graphic works (also called “derivative works”). Three interesting cases on derivative works, two involving Jeff Koons and one Tintin, have recently put French copyright law in the international spotlight (e.g. here and here). The American transformative…

The first part of this series provided an introduction to the Dutch DSM copyright directive transposition bill submitted to the Dutch parliament on 15 May (operative provisions Dutch / auto-translate, explanatory memorandum Dutch / auto-translate), and a discussion of the provisions transposing Article 15 (the press publishers’ right). Part 2 continued with an analysis of…

The turbulent relationship between copyright law and the freedoms of information and expression lies at the heart of the recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the case Spiegel Online GmbH v Volker Beck (C 516/17). Part I of this blogpost critically overviewed the CJEU’s main principles of analysis…