In the European Union, courts have been expanding the enforcement of intellectual property rights by employing injunctions to compel intermediaries to provide assistance, despite no allegation of wrongdoing against these parties. These prospective injunctions, designed to prevent future harm, thus hold parties accountable where no liability exists. Effectively a new type of regulatory tool, these injunctions are distinct from the conventional secondary liability in tort. At present, they can be observed in orders to compel website blocking, content filtering, or disconnection, but going forward, their use is potentially unlimited. This book outlines the paradigmatic shift this entails for the future of the Internet and analyzes the associated legal and economic opportunities and problems.
In this thoroughly revised second edition, Pedro De Miguel Asensio presents a practical analysis of jurisdiction, choice of law, and recognition and enforcement of judgments in the context of online activities, examining areas where private legal relationships are most affected by the Internet. Addressing the tension between the ubiquity of the Internet and the territorial nature of national legal orders, the author sets out the latest developments across multiple jurisdictions in this dynamic field.
To better understand the heterogeneity of the international online intermediary liability regime, The Oxford Handbook of Intermediary Liability Online is designed to provide a comprehensive, authoritative and 'state-of-the-art' discussion of by highlighting emerging trends. This book discusses fundamental legal issues in intermediary liability online, while also describing advancement in intermediary liability theory and identifying recent policy trends. Sections I and II provide a taxonomy of internet platforms, a general discussion of possible basis for liability and remedies, while putting into context intermediary liability regulation with fundamental rights and the ethical implications of the intermediaries' role. Section III presents a jurisdictional overview discussing intermediary liability safe harbour arrangements and highlighting issues with systemic fragmentation and miscellaneous inconsistent approaches. Mapping online intermediary liability worldwide entails the review of a wide-ranging topic, stretching into many different areas of law and domain-specific solutions. Section IV provides an overview of intermediate liability for copyright, trademark, and privacy infringement, together with Internet platforms' obligations and liabilities for defamation, hate and dangerous speech. Section V reviews intermediary liability enforcement strategies by focusing on emerging trends, including proactive monitoring obligations across the entire spectrum of intermediary liability subject matters, blocking orders against innocent third parties, and the emergence of administrative enforcement of intermediary liability online. In addition, Section VI discusses an additional core emerging trend in intermediary liability enforcement: voluntary measures and private ordering. Finally, international private law issues are addressed in Section VII with special emphasis on the international struggle over Internet jurisdiction and extra-territorial enforcement of intermediaries' obligations.
As companies and organisations increasingly operate across national boundaries, so the incentive to understand how to acquire, deploy and protect IP rights in multiple national jurisdictions has rapidly increased. Transnational Intellectual Property Law meets the need for a book that introduces contemporary intellectual property as it is practiced in today’s global context. Focusing on three major IP regimes – the United States, Europe and China – the unique transnational approach of this textbook will help law students and lawyers across the world understand not only how IP operates in different national contexts, but also how to coordinate IP protection across numerous national jurisdictions. International IP treaties are also covered, but in the context of an overall emphasis on transnational coordination of legal rights and strategies.
First released in early 2019, Copyright and the Court of Justice of the European Union remains the only book exclusively devoted to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the EU copyright field. Fully updated for the new edition, the book explains the Court's role and action in the field of EU copyright law and provides readers with a sense of the direction of the Court's jurisprudence through an exercise of 'tidying up' and rationalizing the rulings issued so far. In his foreword to the first edition, First Advocate General Maciej Szpunar praised the book's 'profound analysis' of the EU copyright protection and CJEU decisions, which in his view, 'unveiled new information, perhaps never considered, even by members of the Court'. The new edition captures all the significant developments in EU copyright law that have occurred since 2019. Aside from macro-events such as the UK's now completed departure from the EU and the adoption of the Digital Single Market Directive (2019/790), seminal judgments have been issued by the CJEU which touch upon all the main foundational aspects of EU copyright. This book is structured in three parts. The first part is about the role of the CJEU as an EU institution. Following a discussion of the impact of CJEU interpretation of EU copyright provisions (notably their pre-emptive effect on individual EU Member States' freedom), the second part is concerned with CJEU action and vision in respect of four key areas of copyright and related rights: the requirements for protection, construction of exclusive rights, exceptions and limitations, and enforcement. The final part focuses on the legacy of CJEU case law broadly intended, having regard to both individual countries' copyright laws (specifically: the UK) and recent EU copyright reform discourse, notably in the context of the DSM Directive. Timely and engaging, Copyright and the Court of Justice of the European Union provides novel insights into the activity of the CJEU in the copyright field and reflects on the resulting implications for the present and future of EU copyright.
Numerous questions were at the heart of parliamentary discussions over the provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU's new regulatory framework for digital services in Europe. How should liberal democracies prevent illegal and harmful activities online and protect fundamental rights? How should digital service providers assess the impact of their technology on others? And how should technology companies moderate user-generated content? Principles of the Digital Services Act analyses the DSA's key provisions, dissecting its mechanisms and components, to understand the new law's likely impact on digital services in Europe and beyond. The book puts the new legal framework into its political, economic, and social contexts by explaining its grounding within the frameworks of economic regulation and human rights. It examines the European legislature's approach to the DSA, offering a detailed historical account of the legislative and pre-legislative process. The book argues that the envisaged regulatory system has the potential to boost trust in the digital environment. However, its mechanisms must be able to rely on the robust network of civil society organisations and the regulators should follow a set of principles. In this way, the DSA's goal can be achieved through means that are firmly aligned with respect for individual liberties, including the freedom of expression. Combining academic research with practical insights, Principles of the Digital Services Act offers a robust analysis into how to apply and further develop the most important tools of the DSA to rebuild trust in the digital environment.
This book presents the ways in which three key issues of the modern world – transformation, digitalisation and sustainability – may be combined for the greater good and highlights which activities may be designed to integrate these three directly linked paths. It is an experience-derived and evidence-based analysis of how sustainable development impacts the transformation of the economy and how the business environment influences economic transformation in the light of the sustainable development principles. The book addresses the current challenges and shows how the economy can be transformed further in an organic way that meets the needs of society and the environment, through the use of digital technologies. The multidisciplinary approach to sustainability transformation is one of the core strengths of the book, as it emphasises the need for a holistic approach to the functioning of sustainable development ideas at the micro- and macro-levels. The authors present a fresh perspective, particularly around the regulations stimulating the sustainable development of enterprises, tax systems, and the allocation of capital. Moreover, the book brings together and makes available the results of the latest research on the subject, using a vast amount of primary evidence and both quantitative and qualitative methodology. The authors’ insights go beyond the obvious effects of economic transformation and call attention to ways in which smart technology and digitalisation may help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The book is directed first and foremost towards academics, researchers and students, but also professionals, who would like to expand their knowledge of sustainable development from a scientific perspective. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
This book explores the challenges that emerging technologies and technology driven practices pose for traditional notions of intellectual property (IP) law and policy. Chapters offer perspectives from across the IP law spectrum and address questions such as; is the law evolving in the right direction and is the regulation of emerging technology supported by sound policy objectives? Covering a diverse range of topics, this book exposes the intimate relationship between IP and technology.
Across the member states of the Council of Europe, both the blocking and removal of online material are frequently treated in a similar way. However, the existence or the lack of a legislative framework specifically targeted to the internet, and the specificities of national regulatory “models” translate in different practices and can be a challenge for the states concerned. The Council of Europe commissioned a comparative study from the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law in respect of filtering, blocking and take-down of illegal content on the internet in the 47 member states of the Organisation. This study describes and assesses the legal framework but also the relevant case-law and practice in the field. It comprises a comparative analysis – which is the subject of this publication – and country reports (available on the website: www.coe.int/freedomofexpression).
