Copyright laws are important regulators of cultural expression, because they grant extensive rights to control the reproduction, adaptation and communication of ‘literary’ and ‘artistic’ works. The twin concepts of authorship and original work are central to copyright laws the world...

Nobody likes today’s copyright law. Widespread unauthorized use of copyright material proliferates with impunity, while citizens and users protest that intrusive copyright and related rights law stifle cultural expression. Equipment manufacturers and intermediaries complain about yet more...

Broadcasters and other media are particularly susceptible to claims in defamation, infringements of privacy or of other interests in personality. They may be also sued for other civil wrongs (torts) such as alleged breaches of intellectual property rights or for acts of unfair competition. When...

The licensing policies adopted by public sector information holders (PSIHs) directly affect two of the items expressly mentioned in Art. 13(2) of the EU Directive 2003/98: the extent of re-use of public sector information and its increase rate. Moreover the optimization of rules and policies...

Should public undertakings be covered by the PSI Directive? The definitions of public sector bodies and bodies governed by public law, to which the PSI Directive applies, are currently taken from the public procurement Directives and public undertakings are not covered by these definitions....

The reliance on national access norms is an important feature of the EU’s re-use framework. It impacts the kinds of policy choices that can be expected to be effective in stimulating commercial and non-commercial re-use of public sector information by private actors (businesses, civil society...

My focus in this piece is on the interplay between the legal concepts of work, copy and adaptation in light of the now ubiquitous ‘new’ forms or genres of works that online networks enabled. Can European copyright law accommodate the increased fluidity of some of these work genres? What...

The regulation of copyright in materials produced for or by public sector bodies is historically linked to ideas about representative democracy, the legitimacy and binding effect of laws, and transparency in judicial proceedings. These notions can produce a variety of regulatory outcomes, as the...

As the rapid growth of the Open Government Partnership shows, it is by now conventional wisdom that opening up government information for broader use by industry, civil society and citizens produces many benefits: better performing government, more citizen participation and impressive economic...

The chapter “Applicable Law” of the International Law Association’s Guidelines on Intellectual Property and Private International Law (“Kyoto Guidelines”) provides principles on the choice of law in international intellectual property matters. The Guidelines confirm the traditional...