EU Parliament Approves Copyright Reform

March 2019 On March 26, 2019, the European Parliament voted 348 to 274 (with 36 abstaining) to pass the European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (the “Directive”). Among the Directive’s broad regulations are two key requirements that have garnered significant attention: 1) that news aggregators (such as Google News) must now pay licensing fees to use content (Article 15) and 2) that large platforms (such as YouTube) must monitor content generated by their users for copyright infringement (Article 17). The proposal had been fiercely opposed by parties concerned about potential censorship in the future and tech […]

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Copyright Registration Ruling

SUPREME COURT DECISION PLACES PREMIUM ON EARLY COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION In the United States, copyright “registration” is a prerequisite to most suits for infringement of a US-origin work. Timely registration is also a prerequisite to the important remedies of statutory damages and attorneys’ fees. But what does “registration” mean? Circuit Courts of Appeals were split on the question of whether “registration” means filing an application for registration or actually obtaining the registration from the Copyright Office. Under current practices, this can make a difference of seven months on average – an eternity in the case of a serious infringement for which […]

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