Readers might remember an open letter sent to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council a few weeks after the release by the European Commission of a proposal for a new Copyright Directive on 14 September 2016. The open letter, an initiative led by iCLIC, a Southampton University based research centre, had been … Continue reading
Category Archives: Internet intermediaries
Access to data / content data / Data protection / Data retention / Internet intermediaries / ISPs / mass surveillance / metadata / national security
The CJEU in Tele2 Sverige: are general(ised) data retention obligations incompatible with EU law?
Christmas was particularly festive for privacy advocates with the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judgement in the joint cases C‑203/15 Tele2 Sverige AB v Postoch telestyrelsen and C‑698/15 Secretary of State for the Home Department v Secretary of State for the Home Department and the leak of the European Commission’s upgraded version … Continue reading
AG CAMPOS SÁNCHEZ-BORDONA in Stichting Brein: what is the link between GS Media and Article 15 ECD?
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
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
content regulation / Copyright / illegal content / immunities / Internet intermediaries / ISPs / notice-and-take down / safe harbour
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
content regulation / Copyright / filtering / illegal content / immunities / Intellectual Property / Internet intermediaries
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
content regulation / Copyright / immunities / Internet intermediaries / liability / Linking / notice-and-take down
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
blocking injunction / deep packet inspection / filtering / Intellectual Property / Internet intermediaries / Trade Marks
Blocking injunction confirmed in trade mark case: could Cartier ever nourish euro-scepticism even after Brexit?
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales (CA) confirmed yesterday the availability of injunctions against Internet access providers to the benefits of trade mark owners. In short, the CA had to hear appeals by five English Internet service providers (Sky, BT, EE, TalkTalk and Virgin, known as ‘the ISPs‘) against first instance orders made … Continue reading
anonymisation / big data / Data protection / General Data Protection Regulation / Internet intermediaries / metadata / pseudonymisation / Risk-based approach / Surveillance
Mind the Caveats – CJEU Advocate General opines that Dynamic IP Addresses can be Personal Data … (sometimes)
“I am not a number …” – but to what extent does EU data protection law deem that I am identifiable from one if someone somewhere could link it back to me at a single point in time? The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has been hearing arguments in a case involving the … Continue reading
content regulation / hate speech / illegal content / immunities / Intellectual Property / Internet intermediaries / notice-and-take down / terrorism
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