(1) Maximillian Schrems, an Austrian citizen and Facebook user, lodged a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner saying that in light of Edward Snowden's revelations concerning the activities of the United States intelligence services, the law and practice of the United States did not offer adequate protection against surveillance by public authorities of the data transferred to that country. In this case, data provided to Facebook’s Irish subsidiary is transferred to servers located in the United States. (2) The Court found that European data was not sufficiently protected in the United States and invalidated the Commission Decision 2000/520/EC that created the transatlantic U.S.-EU Safe Harbor agreement. The EU-US Safe Harbor agreement had been in place for 15 years and enabled U.S. companies to...
The Strategy plans the introduction of enhanced obligations that websites and other Internet intermediaries should have for dealing with unlawful third-party content and discusses what regulations should apply to a subset of those intermediaries deemed “internet platforms.” The Commission would like to discuss whether "whether to require intermediaries to exercise greater responsibility and due diligence in the way they manage their networks and systems – a duty of care." (emphasis added). The Commission refers to enhanced responsibilities for dealing with illegal content, such as child pornography, terrorist materials, and content that infringes upon intellectual property rights. (See § 3.3)
(1) The ECJ had to decide whether linking to live internet streams of sport events infringed on the exclusive related rights of broadcasting organizations. Prior to this case, the Court decided linking related issues in Svensson and Bestwater (see below). The request for a preliminary ruling came from the Supreme Court of Sweden. The online broadcaster C More Entertainment challenged the legality of Mr. Sandberg’s website hosting links enabling users to circumvent a paywall to watch its live streams of hockey matches. The ECJ concluded that national legislation may extend the exclusive right of the broadcasting organisations to acts of communication to the public encompassing broadcasts of sporting fixtures made live on internet. (2) The referring court decided to drop a number of questions concerning whether placing...
(1) The Court issued a reasoned order ex Article 99 of the Rule of Procedure of the European Court of Justice, which applied the findings of the Svensson decision (see below). (2) The case concerned the lawfullness under EU law of the practice of inserting on websites clickable links that use the technique of "framing" and through which the user was directed to a film on which BestWater maintained the exclusive rights. BestWater manufactures and markets water filter systems. For advertising needs, she produced a short film on the water pollution. The film was available on the video platform "YouTube" without Bestwater's consent. Mebes and Potsch are independent sales agents who act on behalf of a competitor of BestWater International. They each have a website where they promote the products marketed by their client...
The ECJ stated that European libraries may digitize books in their collection without permission from the rightholders. The decision confirmed a previous opinion of the ECJ's Advocate General. (1) The ECJ noted that European law "must be interpreted to mean that it does not preclude Member States from granting to publicly accessible libraries . . . the right to digitise the works contained in their collections . . . ." However, several caveats attach to this general statement. First, such act of reproduction must be necessary for the purpose of making those works available to users, by means of dedicated terminals, in public libraries, for the purpose of research or private study. (par. 46). Second, the ECJ recognizes this right provided that "specific acts of reproduction" are involved. Therefore, the public library...
The ECJ clarified the notion of "information society services" within the meaning of the Directive 2000/31/EC and the application of rules of civil liability for defamation to those intermediaries. The case involved an action brought by an individual for defamation against a daily national newspaper, which published the defamatory articles online. The ECJ concluded that (1) Directive 2000/31/EC must be interpreted as meaning that the concept of ‘information society services’ covers the provision of online information services for which the service provider is remunerated, not by the recipient, but by income generated by advertisements posted on a website; (2) Directive 2000/31/EC does not preclude the application of rules of civil liability for defamation. In particular, the limitations of civil liability specified in...