The GDPR, the proposed Copyright Directive and intermediary liability: one more time!

Posted on March 5, 2017 by Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon • 11 Comments

A lot has been written on the topic of intermediary liability in the past few months. But has everything been said or read? And looking at the different pieces of the regulatory jigsaw together, are we heading in the right direction? One important piece of the jigsaw is certainly the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) … Continue reading →

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?

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon • 6 Comments

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 →

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!

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon • Leave a comment

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 / Data protection / immunities / Internet intermediaries / ISPs / notice-and-take down

The EU Commission and its draft Communication on online platforms: sectorial voluntary action and soft law are the winners of the regulatory challenge!

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon • 2 Comments

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 →

Access to data / content data / Data protection / Data retention / deep packet inspection / ISPs / Law enforcement / metadata / Personal data / Privacy / Surveillance

The Draft IP Bill and data retention obligations: on the irony of the invalidation of the Data Retention Directive

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon • 3 Comments

The Draft Investigatory Powers (IP) Bill was published on the 4th of November. It aims to “govern the use and oversight of investigatory powers by law enforcement and the security and intelligence agencies” in the UK. It is an attempt both to simplify the legal framework and legalise practices, which means it is, in part, … Continue reading →

blocking injunction / Data protection / deep packet inspection / Intellectual Property / Internet intermediaries / ISPs / Privacy

Cartier et al v Sky et al 2014: what if the ISPs’ blocking systems did not implement Shallow Packet Inspection technologies?

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon • 1 Comment

Over the last couple of years, music and film copyright owners have obtained several website-blocking orders under UK copyright rules (section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988). However, as there is no equivalent legislative provision for trade mark infringement, website-blocking orders have not been used in respect of trade mark infringement… that … Continue reading →