Case C-498/16, Schrems – a Facebook consumer or simply in the business of privacy?

This case concerns a person with a Facebook account. He uses it not only to exchange private photographs and chat with about 250 friends but also for publicity purposes. The legal issue is whether this latter activity stops him from qualifying as a ‘consumer’. The definition matters because if he is a consumer, then he and several thousand other Austrians who are aggrieved at Facebook’s use of their personal data will be able to sue in the Austrian courts.

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Case C-610/15, Stichting Brein – seeking website blocks to stop peer to peer technology

People may use telecoms networks to pass information to each other. Some websites such as that run by The Pirate Bay allow people to download software that enables them to pass small pieces of information around a telecoms network. The question in this case is whether a Dutch court can order telecoms companies to block their customers’ access to websites like The Pirate Bay in order to stop presumed copyright infringement from taking place.

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Case C-174/15, Vereniging Openbare Bibliotheken – ebooks via Dutch public libraries

Like public libraries the world over, Dutch libraries lend materials from their collections to the public. However, those materials may be protected by copyright. Consequently, Dutch law requires Dutch libraries to pay money to the copyright holders every single time a book is lent. The legal question in this case is whether that obligation extends to an ‘e-book’, and the answer depends on the word ‘lending’ in the EU’s ‘rental and lending rights’ Directive 2006/115/EC.

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Case C-484/14, McFadden – a mere conduit?

If a person offers non-password-protected access to the Internet, and an unknown user passes a piece of copyright-infringing music over that Internet connection, then can the person offering the Internet access be absolved of legal liability on the basis that he is but a ‘mere conduit’ under the EU’s ‘E-Commerce’ Directive 2000/31/EC?

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Case C-314/14, Sanoma Media Finland – exceeding the maximum amount of hourly advertising?

Media companies interrupt television programmes for advertising breaks. At the end of television programmes there is yet more advertising. According to Article 23 of the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive 2010/13/EC, the maximum amount of advertising per hour is 12 minutes. In this case, a company has been exceeding that amount by splitting up what appears in the television screen so that while one programme’s end-credits roll other programmes are trailed, and during the trails the corporate logos and goods made by the sponsoring companies also appear on the screen. Is this not also corporate advertising that should rightly be included in the hourly amount of advertising?

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Case C-201/13, Johan Deckmyn – parody in EU law

Belgium has a tradition of creating comic book figures. Tintin is perhaps the most famous comic book character but another popular comic strip chronicles the adventures of ‘Spike and Suzy’ [Suske and Wiske]. Comic books can be protected by copyright. In this reference, the issue is whether the right holders can stop a political party from circulating a picture that spoofs the cover of a Spike and Suzy story.

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