©-LAW

Physical address Can a rightholder request, under  Article 8(2)(a) of the Enforcement Directive , an online platform to provide personal contact details (more precisely: email addresses, telephone numbers, and IP addresses) of users of such platform who have infringed its copyrights? This, in a nutshell, is the question at the heart of the referral in  Constantin Film v YouTube , C-264/19 , currently pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). A few days ago, Advocate General (AG) Saugmandsgaard Øe issued his  Opinion , substantially answering in the negative (at least from an EU perspective). The referral is important for two key reasons ... plus one. First, because this is yet another case – recent instances being the 2019 Grand Chamber rulings in  Funke Medien ,  Spiegel Online , and  Pelham   [Katposts  here ,  here , and  here ]  – in which the CJEU will be required to balance differe...

What room does EU copyright leave for national initiatives in areas harmonised by relevant EU directives? The question of  EU preemption  (linked to, yet distinct from,  EU supremacy ) in the area of copyright is not a new one. Personally, I have been very interested in it for a while  [see  here ] , and so has been apparently the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).  A string of recent copyright decisions demonstrates a diminished tolerance on the side of the Court for diverging national solutions to copyright protection in areas for which EU harmonisation has occurred. In this sense, the search of flexibilities in EU copyright has been proving increasingly challenging ... if not a vain quest altogether.  Favouring internal market goals over pretty much anything else, the CJEU has not been shy in holding that certain national arrangements would be incompatible with EU law. In this sense, there is probably no need to recall th...