JIPITEC – Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and E-Commerce Law

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Latest documents

• Catching sight of a glimmer of light: Fair remuneration and the emerging distributive rationale in the reform of EU copyright law

  In the haze of highly polarized debates on the recently adopted EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM), its focus on the notion of fair remuneration has passed over rather quietly. Three provisions in the Directive deal specifically with the fair distribution of revenue from online platforms to producers and, in turn, from producers to authors. Taking the cue from these new rules, the article investigates the restrictive interpretation of fair remuneration as fairly distributed income among right holders. The analysis purports to unearth the underlying distributive rationale of the new Directive as well as identify traces of it throughout the evolution of EU copyright law. By this token, the controversial CDSM Directive proves a valid opportunity to shed new light on the objectives of EU copyright law and assess its modernization in light of a distributive perspective

• The Liability system of Art. 17 DSMD and national implementation - contravening prohibition of general monitoring duties?

  The article deals with the complex liability system of Art. 17 DSM Directive, the famous "upload filter provision" in copyright law concerning content sharing platforms. The conflict between the prohibition of general monitoring obligations for platform providers derived from European fundamental rights by the CJEU and the obligations of providers are scrutinized. Moreover, possible options for national legislators in order to safeguard fundamental rights of users concerning freedom of speech (and copyright limitations) are discussed

• New types of marks available after the European Union Trade Mark Reform An Analysis in the light of the U.S. Trade mark law

  This article analyzes one of the novelties brought about by the European Union trade mark reform; i.e. the removal of the graphic representation requirement opening opportunities to register new types of marks at the European Union Intellectual Property Office. In this article, the legal requirements for the registration of the non-traditional trade marks under the legal frameworks of the European Union and the United States of America are discussed and the new provisions of the European Union trade mark law on the representation of trade marks are assessed

• Copyright lessons on Machine Learning: what impact on algorithmic art?

  Nowadays, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is described as "the new electricity". Current algorithmic innovation allowed the development of software which enables machines to learn and to achieve autonomous decision making, with limited or no human involvement, in a vast number of applications, such as speech recognition, machine translation and algorithmic creation of works (computer generated art), on the basis of a process widely known as Machine Learning (ML). Within the ML context, machines are repeatedly trained by means of specifically designed learning algorithms that use a corpus of examples in the form of data sets as training material. Very often and, especially in the context of algorithmic creativity, the training material is mainly composed by copyrighted works, such as texts, images, paintings, musical compositions, and others. Machine Learning workflow typically involves the realization of (multiple) reproductions of any protected work used as training material. The present paper aims to assess the extent to which the use of copyrighted works for Machine Learning purposes in the field of algorithmic creativity is controlled by the monopolistic power of the copyright rightholder on that work. The answer to this question will be researched in the context of EU copyright law, by examining the content of reproduction right and exceptions possibly applicable in a typical ML workflow in the field of algorithmic art, before making an overall assessment of the current EU regulatory framework for artistic ML projects, as it is shaped after the DSM Directive 2019/790

• Editorial
• Safeguarding User Freedoms in Implementing Article 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive: Recommendations from European Academics
• Getting Data Subject Rights Right A submission to the European Data Protection Board from international data rights academics, to inform regulatory guidance

  We are a group of academics active in research and practice around data rights. We believe that the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) guidance on data rights currently under development is an important point to resolve a variety of tensions and grey areas which, if left unaddressed, may significantly undermine the fundamental right to data protection. All of us were present at the recent stakeholder event on data rights in Brussels on 4 November 2019, and it is in the context and spirit of stakeholder engagement that we have created this document to explore and provide recommendations and examples in this area. This document is based on comprehensive empirical evidence as well as CJEU case law, EDPB (and, previously, Article 29 Working Party) guidance and extensive scientific research into the scope, rationale, effects and general modalities of data rights

• Responsible Information Sharing Converging boundaries between private and public in privacy and copyright law

  Copyright Law and Privacy Law both grant individuals exclusive control over the dissemination of expression or personal information, respectively. A number of criteria emerged in the ‘new public' jurisprudence of the CJEU based on Article 3 Directive 2001/29/EC (InfoSoc Directive), that determine how right holders can retain control over copyright-protected works after their first publication. The Court established that the scope of a public in copyright law depends, among other factors, on the subjective intention of the person who exposes a work to an audience. The case law suggests that several ‘publics' coexist, and that the exposure of works to one of these ‘publics', does not automatically justify exposure to other public spheres. The exposure of these works to other ‘publics', still remains under the control of the right holder. It is suggested that the notion of a "new public" can be instrumental in better understanding the delimitation of public and private space in EU privacy law. The authors propose a concept of privacy as controlled public exposure, modelled on the notion of a "new public" under Article 3 of the Information Society Directive, and inspired by recent jurisprudence of the ECtHR on Article 8 ECHR, which protects the right to respect for private life. This, the authors argue, leads to an expansion of private spheres in public life

• Editorial
• Response to the 2018 Sarr-Savoy Report: Statement on Intellectual Property Rights and Open Access relevant to the digitization and restitution of African Cultural Heritage and associated materials

Featured documents

• Ten Questions for Future Regulation of Big Data: A Comparative and Empirical Legal Study

  Much has been written about Big Data from a technical, economical, juridical and ethical perspective. Still, very little empirical and comparative data is available on how Big Data is approached and regulated in Europe and beyond. This contribution makes a first effort to fill that gap by...

• Big Data in the Insurance Industry: Leeway and Limits for Individualising Insurance Contracts

  With the advent of big data analytics, the individualisation of mass market insurance policies has become commercially attractive. While this development would have positive economic effects, it could also undermine the principle of solidarity in insurance. This paper aims to outline the different...

• Digital First Sale Doctrine Ante Portas - Exhaustion in the Online Environment

  The purpose of the article is to provide first a doctrinal summary of the concept, rules and policy of exhaustion, first, on the international and EU level, and, later, under the law of the United States. Based upon this introduction, the paper turns to the analysis of the doctrine by the pioneer...

• Oblivion, Erasure and Forgetting in the Digital Age

  In light of the recent European Court of Justice ruling (ECJ C-131/12, Google Spain v. Spanish Data Protection Agency), the “right to be forgotten” has once again gained worldwide media attention. Already in 2012, when the European Commission proposed a right to be forgotten, this proposal received ...

• Fixing Copyright Reform: A Better Solution to Online Infringement

  The newly-adopted Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSMD) will fundamentally reshape EU copyright law. Among its most controversial offerings is Article 17, the socalled "value gap" provision, aimed at solving the alleged mismatch between the value that online content-...

• Breathing Space for Cloud-Based Business Models: Exploring the Matrix of Copyright Limitations, Safe Harbours and Injunctions Exploring the Matrix of Copyright Limitations, Safe Harbours and Injunctions

  Cloud-based services keep forming, changing and evaporating like clouds in the sky. They range from personal storage space for films and music to social media and user-generated content platforms. The copyright issues raised by these platforms seem as numerous as the liquid droplets and frozen...

• On Upload-Filters and other Competitive Advantages for Big Tech Companies under Article 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market

  Article 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM), with its goal to close the so-called "value-gap", contains several strong incentives to use and further develop filtering technologies. It also introduces a direct liability regime, which puts content-service...

• Open Science and Public Sector Information - Reconsidering the exemption for educational and research establishments under the Directive on re-use of public sector information

  The article discusses the possibilities of including public research and educational establishments within the scope of the Directive regulating the re-use of public sector information (2003/98/EC - ‘PSI Directive’). It subsequently evaluates the legal consequences of such an inclusion. Focusing on ...

• Welcome to the Jungle: The Liability of Internet Intermediaries for Privacy Violations in Europe

  In Europe, roughly three regimes apply to the liability of Internet intermediaries for privacy violations conducted by users through their network. These are: the e-Commerce Directive, which, under certain conditions, excludes them from liability; the Data Protection Directive, which imposes a...

• Exploring the Interfaces Between Big Data and Intellectual Property Law

  This article reviews the application of several IP rights (copyright, patent, sui generis database right, data exclusivity and trade secret) to Big Data. Beyond the protection of software used to collect and process Big Data corpora, copyright’s traditional role is challenged by the relatively...