The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU)’s Advocate General (AG) Campos Sanchez-Bordona issued his opinion yesterday in the case C‑527/15 Stichting Brein v Jack Frederik Wullems, acting under the name of Filmspeler, which is again a case involving the infamous right to communicate copyright works to the public. Very briefly, the … Continue reading
Category Archives: content regulation
Open Letter to the European Commission – On the Importance of Preserving the Consistency and Integrity of the EU Acquis Relating to Content Monitoring within the Information Society
This is not just another post on the proposed Copyright Directive released on 14 September 2016 (Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market discussed in my previous post here) and others hard and/or soft law initiatives coming from the European Commission (see for … Continue reading
The CJEU rules on free access to wireless local area networks in McFadden: The last(?) shudder of Article 15 ECD, the vanishing of effective remedies, and a big farewell to free Wi-Fi!
Let us now turn to the last intellectual work of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the field of copyright and intermediary liability [it is indeed really difficult to get rid of them!] which was released today: Case C‑484/14 Tobias Mc Fadden v Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH. Once again, the … Continue reading
Article 15(1) ECD is dead! Long live Article 15(2) ECD! Or how the European Commission stroke the last blow to the ECD safe harbours with its proposed copyright Directive!
So here we are, never 2 without 3. After the proposed Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AMSD), and the Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech, here comes the proposed Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market! This proposed Directive contains 24 Articles and touches upon hotly debated and controversial issues, such as … Continue reading
The CJEU on its head: Is GS Media consistent with Google v Vuitton?
The decision of the CJEU (Court of Justice of the EU) in the GS Media case is a shock. For those who are still enjoying your summer holidays, the CJEU issued today a decision that will not be forgotten easily. The first reason is that the CJEU does not follow its Advocate General (AG), who … Continue reading
The EU Commission and its official Communication on Online Platforms: is the e-commerce Directive being attacked by the back door?
As you might remember, a draft version of the European Commission’s Communication on Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market was leaked at the end of April. From digesting it at that time, it seemed to be clear that the Commission had taken the view that content regulation should be sectorial and the liability exemptions … Continue reading
The EU Commission and its draft Communication on online platforms: sectorial voluntary action and soft law are the winners of the regulatory challenge!
The topic of intermediary liability is a hot topic these days, with different types of institutions already having had looked, or still looking, at how to interpret/amend/improve the EU intermediary liability legal and regulatory regime. The European Commission [EC] fuelled this debate with its Communication of 6 May 2015 on ‘A Digital Single Market Strategy … Continue reading
Why CG v Facebook Ireland et al might be less odd than anticipated… On Internet intermediaries and monitoring obligations
CG v Facebook Ireland and Joseph McCloskey delivered on 20/02/2015 by the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland has not always been warmly welcome… in particular by those concerned about the roles and responsibilities of Internet intermediaries in relation to distribution and access to information. Oh Well… Strangely, the CG v Facebook litigation seems … Continue reading