Price-comparison websites in the EU are often lawful because the websites they take their information from are databases frequently unprotected by either copyright or the ‘sui generis’ right enshrined in the EU’s Database Directive 96/9/EC. This is true of Ryanair’s website. But Ryanair’s website is however protected by a plank of deviant Dutch ‘copyright’ law. In this case, a Dutch website that compares the price of airfares is seeking to rely on a Dutch exception to the Dutch ‘copyright’ rule, an exception that corresponds to one found in the EU’s Database Directive. The legal question has become whether the Directive applies to all databases and thus websites – even the unprotected ones – and, if so, whether the price-comparison website qualifies as a ‘lawful user’, who does not need to obtain Ryanair’s consent to use Ryanair’s website.
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Case C-419/13, Art & Allposters International – from paper art poster to canvas picture
When a company takes paper posters of famous art works and puts them onto canvas, is the company infringing an author’s right to control the distribution of a copyright-protected work as enshrined in Article 4 of the EU’s InfoSoc Directive 2001/29?
Continue readingCase C-98/13, Martin Blomqvist – deliberately purchasing a fake Rolex from China
When a consumer deliberately buys a fake Rolex from a Chinese website and then Danish customs seizes the watch, is the watch to be destroyed without compensation?
Continue readingCase C-348/13, BestWater International – objecting to the embedding of videos
Where a company’s website allows a visitor to view a video that has actually been made by a rival company, can the rival rely on the EU’s InfoSoc Directive 2001/29 to stop its video from being shown?
Continue readingCase C-291/13, Papasavvas – online libel, defamation and injurious falsehood
To what degree does the EU’s E-Commerce Directive 2000/31 cover online libel, defamation and injurious falsehood?
Continue readingCase C-279/13, C More Entertainment – skating on thin ice with embedded links in EU copyright law
Where a person puts a clickable link on his website enabling visitors to watch sports matches for free, then does this constitute a ‘communication to the public’ under the EU’s InfoSoc Directive 2001/29?
Continue readingCase C-466/12, Svensson – hyperlinks and communicating works to the public
Does putting a hyperlink on a website constitute a copyright-relevant ‘communication to the public’ under the EU’s InfoSoc Directive 2001/29?
Continue readingCase C-463/12, Copydan Båndkopi – Danish private-copy ‘fair compensation’ and EU copyright law
For the purposes of the EC’s InfoSoc Directive 2001/29, must Nokia pay a Danish collecting society the private-copy ‘fair compensation’ levy when importing memory cards into Denmark for use in its mobile telephones?
Continue readingCase C-521/11, Amazon – Austrian private-copy ‘fair compensation’ and EU copyright law
Is the private-copy levy system of Austrian copyright law compatible with the EC’s InfoSoc Directive 2001/29 when national law: (a) puts the levy on all blank recording-media irrespective of whether the media are marketed to intermediaries, to natural or legal persons and for use other than for private purposes; (b) offers refunds in some circumstances but not others; and (c), only pays authors half of the net ‘fair compensation’ monies collected and gives away the other half to Austrian cultural organisations?
Continue readingCase C-202/12, Innoweb – search engines copying insubstantial parts of a website
Can a company use the EU’s Database Directive 96/9 to stop minute parts of its website turning up on a rival website?
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