01260185 - Internet and Digital Copyright Law

The course aims to discuss hot topics of copyright law in the digital age from a comparative perspective. Students will get familiarized with the legal treatment of the covered topics in the United States, and under the law of the European Union.

The module starts with a theoretical introduction, where the effects of technological innovation and social needs upon the development of copyright protection are highlighted. Likewise, comparative and digital basics of copyright law will be introduced. The course uses the example of limitations and exceptions to stress how significant differences exist between the Anglo-Saxon “copyright” and the Continental European “Urheberrecht” and “droit d’auteur” systems.

The module continues with the analysis of the several digital copyright issues. The first is related to the doctrine of exhaustion (first sale doctrine in the U.S. copyright law). Under this concept the lawful acquirer (purchaser) of a lawfully sold work (or a copy thereof) shall have the right to dispose of the property of the said work without any permission of the rightholder. This concept will be discussed from a digital copyright perspective as well.

The course includes a session on musical sampling, which is about the use of pre-existing copyrighted sound recordings (and musical compositions) in new sound recordings. The case law of the United States and the Continental European countries show a significant difference with respect to this topic.

The United States and the EU Member States treat the legal problems related to P2P file-sharing differently. There isn’t any similar concept like the U.S. contributory and vicarious liability in the European countries, where – on the other hand – the public law and technological control turned out to be the most effective tool to settle disputes related to file-sharing.
Finally, the interplay of electronic commerce rules and copyright law will be address. As a part thereof the liability for offering e-commerce services, such as linking, hosting (including cyberlockers) or streaming will be discussed. The course introduces the partially different treatment of “safe harbour” provisions of electronic commerce service operators.

The main objective of this course is to provide the students a practice-oriented, analytical aspect on some hot topics of the current (digital) copyright law regimes. The comparative legal aspect allows the students to understand the major differences between the common law and the continental legal systems to be able to study or criticize the different legal solutions. This approach will help the students to use European, American and international copyright law rules in their future career at law firms or at courts, and to undertake independent research on the subject, using both traditional and internet resources.

3 credits or 1.5 US Crédits