Despite the increasing use of streaming services, where media content is not stored on local devices, but merely accessed online, the private copying exception (Art 5(2)(b) InfoSoc Directive) remains at the center of European jurisprudence. In the Austro-Mechana v. Strato case, the Austrian courts have to decide whether the remuneration for private copying must also be…
Welcome to the fourth and final trimester of 2021 round up of EU copyright law! We started this rubric in the beginning of 2021. In this series, we update readers every three months on developments in EU copyright law. This includes Court of Justice (CJEU) and General Court judgments, Advocate Generals’ (AG) opinions, and important…
Introduction In a previous post on this Blog, we analysed the EU case law relating to the emerging services of Cloud Service Providers (C-265/16, V-CAST), as well as the impact of the new EU Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM). More specifically, in the case between V-Cast and RTI, the CJEU ruled that…
The Polish Ministry of Culture has announced draft changes to the Polish copyright law on the collection and division of the private copying levy. The draft law on the rights of professional artists will significantly change how the private copying levy system has been functioning in Poland so far. In Part I of this blog…
The Polish Ministry of Culture has announced draft changes to the Polish copyright law on the collection and division of the private copying levy (also known as the blank media tax or levy). The draft law on the rights of professional artists announced by the Polish Ministry of Culture will significantly change how the private…
The story of Austria’s copyright levy on storage media (storage media levy, briefly “SML”) is not over: In its latest chapter, the Austrian courts – and now also the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) – have to deal with the Austrian legislation once more and this time with a view to cloud…
“This would mean that the ruling will not leave end-users substantially worse-off, despite the qualification of their acts as infringing. However, that is a difficult argument to make.” In its judgment of 10 April 2014 in Case C-435/12 ACI Adam BV and Others the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the…
Last week the European Parliament adopted a resolution on private copying levies. The initiative for the motion came from Ms Francoise Castex MEP (Socialists and Democrats). The European Parliament believes that “the private copying system is a virtuous system that balances the right to copying for private use with fair remuneration to rightholders, and that it is…
This blog post discusses the recent Opinion by Advocate General Pedro Cruz Villalón in Case C-435/12 – ACI Adam and Others, delivered on 9 January 2014 (not available in English). In this case, Advocate General Villalón considered whether reproductions from unlawful sources fall within the private copying exception of art. 5(2)(b) of Directive 2001/29/EC (Copyright…
“The Cabinet of Ministers has failed to assess impact of technology development onto blank tapes and equipment to be used for reproduction and thus imposable with blank tape levy.” (Judgement Constitutional Court, 14.3). Last year, the Satversmes tiesa, the Constitutional Court of Latvia, had to deal with the first copyright case since its establishment in…
