DEAR FRIENDS: The bloggers here at the 1709 Blog have decided that this will be our very last post. We have had great fun blogging through a decade, in some very exciting times for copyright law set against a backdrop of rapid technological change in the digital age. So on behalf of Marie-Andree, John, Eleonora, Angela, Ken and Ben, can we thank you for supporting the 1709 Blog, and we wish you every happiness and success going forwards.  2019 - what a year ! A year of reforms to copyright laws around the globe; an ongoing debate about the role of Artificial Intelligence, both in the creat ..read more

Paris Court of Appeal confirms that Koons’s 'Naked' sculpture infringes copyright in 'Enfants' photograph, rejecting freedom of the arts and parody defences By Eleonora Rosati writing for the IP Kat Last week, the Paris Court Appeal ruled (decision No 152/2019) in favour of the estate of late French photographer Jean-François Bauret in proceedings brought against, inter alia, US artist Jeff Koons (an artist who, as readers will know, has been sued a few times for copyright infringement: see, eg, here, here, and here).  The action related to the unauthorized reproduction of a photograph (Baure ..read more

picture credit Gage Skidmore and nods to the IPKats Among its usual pre-Christmas deposit of multiple judgements, the CJEU has today handed down its decision in the long-awaited Tom Kabinet case (Case  C-263/18 Nederlands Uitgeversverbond and Groep Algemene Uitgevers v Tom Kabinet Internet BV and Others) Both the press release and the judgement are now available in English. As the press release succinctly explains: "The Court found that the supply by downloading, for permanent use, of an e-book is not covered by the right of ‘distribution to the public’ provided for by Article 4(1) of Direc ..read more

French media organisations have lodged a complaint against Google with the country's competition authority in a move over the US internet giant's refusal to pay for displaying their content. In fact the internet platform has taken the decision not to show their content at all - which in turn has reduced traffic to those sites.  Earlier this year France implemented the recent EU copyright reforms - one aim of which was to ensure publishers are compensated when their work is displayed online.  Google won't pay - but with the law now in place will only display content if they are granted gratis p ..read more

COPYRIGHT & TRANSIENT REPRODUCTION IN STREAMING – STATUTORY EXCEPTIONS TO INFRINGEMENT FOR RECIPIENTS   Internet streaming, due to the packet switching technology used in internet communication, inevitably means the streamed content is transiently reproduced by recipients at the end of the communication chain.  Also, the practicalities of internet delivery of content mean there is transient and temporary reproduction by intermediaries in the chain, but the focus of this blog is end user copyright issues.  Unlike the situation where recipients download content, transient reproduction ..read more

Paris Chic, Tal R, 2017 Copenhagen's maritime and commercial court was recently asked to decide whether Dann Thorleifsson and Arne Leivsgard - a duo of Faroese art provocateurs and founders of Kankse and Letho watch brands - could cut up Tal R's artwork "Paris chic", which the duo had purchased last August for 70,000 £ at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London. The duo wanted the painting fragments to decorate the faces of their latest watches, each of which they planned to sell for at least DK 10,000.  The Danish court issued a ruling yesterday in favor of the Danish artist. Consequently, the ..read more

In this guest post David Serras Pereira (SCM) discusses a recent decision which is interesting to anyone working in the collective rights management sector. Here's what David writes: CMOs public performance tariffs: Spanish court indirectly urges for the application of an “European average” criterion but then uses the UK one. Is there any room for discretion besides the CRM Directive? Another interesting Spanish decision (here – search using reference 2000/2019 of Catalunya - Barcelona Court) concerning copyright collective management organizations (CMOs)’ tariffs was issued on Novembe ..read more

Kylie Minogue’s fashion range loses copyright It claim Australian pop star Kylie Minogue is associated with a range of interior design and bed linen products, produced by Ashley Wilde. In a recent action, this design company went on to sue BCPL, a brand which sells bed linen products, primarily owned by another well-known model and TV star Caprice Bourret. The subject of the litigation was with respect to a duvet cover (the cotton shell which covers a comforter) and a matching runner. The allegations of similarity were concerned with the following factual determinations (as reported in the IP ..read more

In a curious turn of events, police in Thailand have now said that they will seek a warrant to arrest copyright agents who allegedly attempted to extort 50,000 baht from a 15 year old for copyright infringement. About 50 vendors in Korat are also said to be preparing to file criminal complaints against the same copyright agents. They had ordered krathongs decorated with cartoon characters from the teenage girl and had been threatened with 'fines' or they would face criminal charges. Korat provincial police chief Maj. Gen. Sujin Nitpanit said the investigation was almost complete and court war ..read more

USPTO brings in the all-important question of whether AI can create or infringe Copyrighted “Works” Artificial Intelligence is a well discussed and debated topic in the realms of Copyright - since the advent of the concept of “Computer-generated works”, but with the recent advancement in the role of AI in curation of art-based copyrightable works, this debate has gained even more importance and is now the  subject of a number of major academic conferences and seminars, with the question surrounding the most appropriate path to be taken by lawmakers and courts. The US Patent and Trade ..read more