Online copyright exhaustion in a post-Allposters world
Online copyright exhaustion in a post-Allposters world
Article 4(2) of Directive 2001/29 (the InfoSoc Directive) provides that the authorized first sale of a work within the territory of the European Union (EU) exhausts the right of the copyright owner to control any subsequent distribution of the work in question. What the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had been asked to clarify in this case was whether this rule also applies to works that, following their authorized first sale, are subject to an alteration of their mediums and are then re-marketed in this new form.
The court referred to both Recital 28 in the preamble to the InfoSoc Directive and Article 6 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty, including the Agreed Statement on Articles 6 and 7, to hold the view that exhaustion of the right of distribution only applies to the tangible copy of a work.
In so doing, albeit rooted within a very specific (analogue) background, the CJEU appeared to rule out any possibility of having digital exhaustion under the InfoSoc Directive. Whether EU law allows digital exhaustion arguably remains however an unresolved issue, with diverging interpretations being provided at the level of national courts. Yet, despite the legal and economic relevance of allowing markets for second-hand digital works, current EU copyright reform plans seem regrettably not to include any consideration of issues facing general digital exhaustion, or its lack thereof.
673-681
Rosati, Eleonora
bd04e7f8-e14b-4e43-975e-77bc5abaa8a4
September 2015
Rosati, Eleonora
bd04e7f8-e14b-4e43-975e-77bc5abaa8a4
Rosati, Eleonora
(2015)
Online copyright exhaustion in a post-Allposters world.
Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 10 (9), .
(doi:10.1093/jiplp/jpv122).
Abstract
Article 4(2) of Directive 2001/29 (the InfoSoc Directive) provides that the authorized first sale of a work within the territory of the European Union (EU) exhausts the right of the copyright owner to control any subsequent distribution of the work in question. What the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had been asked to clarify in this case was whether this rule also applies to works that, following their authorized first sale, are subject to an alteration of their mediums and are then re-marketed in this new form.
The court referred to both Recital 28 in the preamble to the InfoSoc Directive and Article 6 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty, including the Agreed Statement on Articles 6 and 7, to hold the view that exhaustion of the right of distribution only applies to the tangible copy of a work.
In so doing, albeit rooted within a very specific (analogue) background, the CJEU appeared to rule out any possibility of having digital exhaustion under the InfoSoc Directive. Whether EU law allows digital exhaustion arguably remains however an unresolved issue, with diverging interpretations being provided at the level of national courts. Yet, despite the legal and economic relevance of allowing markets for second-hand digital works, current EU copyright reform plans seem regrettably not to include any consideration of issues facing general digital exhaustion, or its lack thereof.
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Online copyright exhaustion in a post-Allposters world
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Accepted/In Press date: 3 June 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 28 July 2015
Published date: September 2015
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 422810
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/422810
ISSN: 1747-1532
PURE UUID: 67ddfda8-4f80-48df-8600-bcd00d159d69
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Date deposited: 06 Aug 2018 16:30
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 21:02
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Author:
Eleonora Rosati
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