Category Archives: European Private Law
Senftleben and Izyumenko, ‘Author Remuneration in the Streaming Age – Exploitation Rights and Fair Remuneration Rules in the EU’
ABSTRACT The transition from linear to on-demand consumption of music, films and other copyrighted content on platforms like Spotify, Netflix and YouTube has given rise to the question whether authors and performers receive a fair share of streaming revenues. While these revenues are substantial and right holders may have the opportunity to control access to […]
Nicola Lucchi, ‘ChatGPT: A Case Study on Copyright Challenges for Generative Artificial Intelligence Systems’
ABSTRACT This article focuses on copyright issues pertaining to generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems, with particular emphasis on the ChatGPT case study as a primary exemplar. In order to generate high-quality outcomes, generative AI systems require substantial quantities of training data, which may frequently comprise copyright-protected information. This prompts inquiries into the legal principles of […]
Daniël Jongsma, ‘The thorny issue of IP address retention and online copyright infringement: The Full Court shows the way in La Quadrature du Net and Others’
INTRODUCTION On 30 April 2024, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), sitting as a full Court, delivered a landmark judgment concerning the lawfulness of retention of and access to IP addresses for the purpose of combating online copyright infringement. The decision represents something of a reckoning for the ECJ with some of its earlier rulings, […]
Mona Naomi Lintvedt, ‘Under the Robot’s Gaze’
ABSTRACT This article delves into the power dynamics at play in human-robot interactions, using gaze theory and panopticism to argue that social robots exert a form of disciplinary power over humans. It challenges the notion of gaze as merely visual by highlighting the sensory and psychological dimensions of omnipresent surveillance that robots are capable of. […]
Tana Pistorius, ‘The IP Protection of Electronic Databases: Copyright or Copywrong?’
ABSTRACT The protection of the intellectual investments embodied in databases is of the utmost importance. Technological innovation has rendered databases vulnerable to unauthorised access, reproduction, adaptation and publication. The copyright protection of databases is not always adequate to address the protection of non-original databases. Vast collections of data are thus vulnerable to information security threats. […]
‘Towards a Bundle of Duties – Shell v Milieudefensie Confirms Major Developments in Climate Change Liability’
This week’s decision in Shell v Milieudefensie from the Hague Court of Appeals seemed like a blow to climate litigation: Milieudefensie was ultimately unsuccessful in convincing the Court that it could transpose a global requirement for 45% emissions reductions by 2030 into an obligation for a particular actor or sector. Yet, the Court of Appeals […]
Marie-Louise Holle, ‘The Overlooked Role of Private Law: Channelling the Right to Prevention into Climate Litigation’
ABSTRACT There is a prevailing perception that climate case applicants (often civil society) are diverting judges from the path of positive law, steering them instead into an area of activist legal precedence rather than engaging with substantive law. This article argues that private law, in fact, plays a crucial role in climate litigation involving states […]
‘AG Szpunar suggests that statutory assignment of performers’ rights against performers’ will is contrary to EU law (C-575/23)’
Last month, Advocate General (AG) Szpunar issued his Opinion in case C-575/23, this being the first request for a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of Directive (EU) 2019/790. The referral, which originates from the Belgium’s Supreme Administrative Court [see The IPKat here on the national proceedings], concerns the interpretation of Arts 18 to 23, which […]
Eleonora Rosati, ‘Is text and data mining synonymous with AI training?’
In late September 2024, the District Court of Hamburg delivered what appears to be the first judgment in Europe on the construction and application of the national transpositions of the text and data mining (TDM) exceptions found in Articles 3 and 4 of the DSM Directive. The Hamburg court ruled that LAION could rely on […]
‘Opinion of the European Copyright Society on the CG and YN v Pelham GmbH and Others, Case C-590/23 (Pelham II)’
In its latest opinion, the European Copyright Society has reviewed the German Federal Court of Justice’s (BGH) referral in the Pelham II (aka Metall auf Metall) case. Although the beginning of the legal dispute dates back to 1999, a quarter century seemed to be not enough to answer all possible questions surrounding the sampling of […]