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Kat cloud   Does the private copying exception and, with it, the fair compensation requirement under Article 5(2)(b) of the   InfoSoc Directive   apply to reproductions carried out by using cloud-based recording services? If so, can rightholders request the providers of such a service to impose a levy even if their customers (natural persons) have already paid one when purchasing the devices (eg, computers, smartphones, tablets) subsequently used to undertake acts of reproduction covered by that provision? These, in essence, are the issues that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has been called upon to decide in  Austro-Mechana , C-433/20 , a pending referral from Austria. IPKat readers interested in all things private copying (who’s not …) will be aware that private copying in the cloud is not an entirely novel issue for the CJEU. A few years ago, in fact, in  VCAST , C-265/16   [ here ]  the Court was asked questions relating to reprod...

  2021 is a momentous year for EU copyright law: it is the 30th anniversary since the adoption of the first ever copyright directive (the Software Directive 1991/250) and the 20th since the passing of the seminal InfoSoc Directive 2001/29. By 7 June this year, individual Member States should have also completed their own national processes for the transposition of the Digital Single Market Directive 2019/790. Besides legislative action, what copyright law is today at both the EU and national levels owes significantly to the case law developed over time by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In several and notable instances, the Court has added flesh to the structure of thin legislative provisions, addressed technological advancement, and contributed substantially to the establishment of a Single Market for copyright content and copyright-based services. To celebrate the publication of   Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Article-by-Article Commentary to the...