Search results : 118

On 24 September 2015, the European Commission launched its public consultation on the regulatory environment for platforms, online intermediaries, data and cloud computing, and the collaborative economy. This consultation is part of the Commission’s recently published Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe (see IRIS 2015-6/13), and the consultation’s purpose is “to better understand the social and economic role of platforms, market trends, the dynamics of platform-development and the various business models underpinning platforms”. The consultation document defines platforms as “undertakings...

On 11 March 2015, Minister for Culture and Communication Fleur Pellerin presented the Government’s strategy for combating piracy on the Internet to the Council of Ministers. Apart from the graduated response applied to illegal downloading implemented by France’s high authority for the distribution of works and the protection of rights on the Internet (Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Oeuvres et la Protection des Droits sur Internet - HADOPI), which remains in place, the action plan is also aimed at streaming sites and referencing, which benefit from pirated works. Three series of measures were...

On 7 January 2015, the Appeals Court of Milan issued a decision that represents a turning point in Italian case law on the role and liability of internet service providers (ISPs), insofar as it rejects the “Italian” distinction between “active” and “passive” hosting providers, lending a new perspective to the issue. The case was brought by Reti Televisive Italiane S.p.A (RTI), Italy’s main private broadcaster and part of the Mediaset group, against Yahoo! Italia S.r.l. (Yahoo! Italia) and Yahoo!, Inc. The decision overturned a previous decision of the Milan Court of First Instance issued on 19...

On 29 May 2012, in a judgment running to 34 pages, the regional court in Paris rejected the claims brought by TF1 and its subsidiaries (the channel LCI, TF1 Vidéo and TF1 International, responsible for video editing and acquiring and distributing rights) against YouTube on the grounds of infringement of copyright, unfair competition and parasitic use. In addition to requesting a ban, the channel was also claiming damages - calculated at EUR 150 million - for the prejudice caused by YouTube putting on-line a whole range of films, series, sports events and broadcasts it felt it had rights to, including...

On 9 May 2012, the court of appeal in Paris delivered its decision in the dispute between the producers of the film Sheitan and the video-sharing platform Dailymotion regarding five videos, corresponding to the entire film divided into five parts, that could be viewed on the platform using streaming despite an order issued by the regional court in Paris demanding communication of data allowing identification of the person who had broken the law by putting the videos on-line. On 11 June 2010, the regional court in Paris had found the platform guilty of infringing copyright and had fined it EUR 15,000...