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Copyright and Fundamental Rights in the
Digital Age
Copyright and
Fundamental Rights in
the Digital Age
A Comparative Analysis in Search of
a Common Constitutional Ground
Edited by
Oreste Pollicino
Full Professor of Constitutional Law and Media Law, Bocconi
University, Italy and Member of the Management Board of the
Fundamental Rights Agency
Giovanni Maria Riccio
Professor of Comparative Copyright Law, University of
Salerno, Italy
Marco Bassini
Postdoctoral Researcher in Constitutional Law and Adjunct
Lecturer of IT Law, Bocconi University, Italy
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
The Lypiatts
15 Lansdown Road
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 2JA
UK
1 Introduction 1
Oreste Pollicino, Giovanni Maria Riccio and Marco Bassini
v
vi Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
Index 254
Contributors
LLM in European Business and Social Law at Bocconi University. She is also
a Fellow at the Transatlantic Technology Law Forum (Stanford University
and University of Vienna) with a project on liability and emerging digital
technologies.
Tuomas Mylly is Chair of Commercial Law at the Faculty of Law, University
of Turku. He is also an Adjunct Professor of European Law at the University
of Turku. In addition to his academic career and studies in Finland and abroad,
he has functioned as lawyer and legal counsel at a law firm and a major mobile
communications corporation in Finland. Professor Mylly’s research focuses
on global and European intellectual property law, and competition law of the
digital society, as well as European constitutional law related to the regulation
of information.
Oreste Pollicino is Full Professor of Constitutional Law at Bocconi University,
where he also serves as Director of the LLM programme in Law of Internet
Technology. He is co-founder and editor in chief of the blog MediaLaws.
eu. He also is the editor in chief of the law journals Rivista di diritto dei
media and Rivista di diritti comparati. Professor Pollicino is co-chair of the
IACL (International Association of Constitutional Law) research groups
‘Algorithmic State, Society and Market – Constitutional Dimensions’ and
‘Internet and Constitution’. Professor Pollicino is also a member of the
Management Board of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
and of the ‘Data Governance’ working group of the Global Partnership on
Artificial Intelligence (GPAI). His research interests include, among others:
internet law, European constitutional law and judicial dialogue in the protec-
tion of human rights in the digital age.
Evangelia Psychogiopoulou is Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic
Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), a member of the
adjunct academic staff of the Hellenic Open University and a legal coun-
sellor for the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports. She has worked for the
Directorate General Education and Culture of the European Commission and
she is a former Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Maastricht. She holds
a DEA in EU Law from the University of Paris I, Pantheon-Sorbonne and
a PhD in Law from the European University Institute. Her research focuses
on EU law, EU cultural governance, media governance and fundamental
rights. She is the author of The Integration of Cultural Considerations in EU
Law and Policies (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2008) and editor of Cultural
Governance and the European Union: Protecting and Promoting Cultural
Diversity in Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
Giovanni Maria Riccio is Professor of Comparative and IT Law at the
University of Salerno. A former consultant to the EU Commission for the
Contributors ix
What are the sense in and the added value of a book exploring the relation-
ship between copyright and other fundamental rights in the aftermath of the
Digital Single Market strategy? The question, if so framed, is not an easy
one to answer, as the recent approval of the Digital Single Market Directive
(Directive (EU) 2019/790) apparently marked a point of no return while
reshaping the most challenging parts of the EU legal framework on copyright.
As a result, the EU institutions seem to have achieved, in light also of other
reforms (such as the refit of the AMVS Directive), a new legal environment
in which a balance between copyright and other rights and freedoms has been
drawn. The implementation of the DSM Directive, nevertheless, will take
time and effort. Additionally, it is difficult to predict how Member States will
react to this step, as some of them voiced harsh criticism concerning, most
notably, the provisions on online uses of press publications and the measures
applicable to content-sharing service providers. Also, has the ‘battle’ between
copyright and freedom of expression in the digital age truly come to an end?
Many factors, especially recent stances in the case law of the Court of Justice,
suggest that the problem is indeed far from being settled. The challenges that
Member States will have to face in the implementation process of the DSM
Directive largely derive from the inherently strained relationship between cop-
yright and other competing rights such as freedom of speech, data protection
and freedom to conduct business. In this respect, this volume departs from the
assumption that the rise of the internet and the spread of digital technologies
led to a reshaping of the understanding of this relationship, particularly as far
as freedom of expression is concerned. While the internet offers new channels
and opportunities for the circulation of copyrighted works, it nevertheless
brings about new threats for right holders, to the extent peer-to-peer systems
and user-generated-content platforms, among others, can be used also by per-
petrators of copyright infringements. For example, remedies available on the
internet may also impact third parties, e.g., users other than the perpetrators of
the infringements, and interfere with their freedom of expression. Likewise,
when illegal pieces of content or information are posted online, internet inter-
1
2 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
mediaries, most notably hosting providers, come into play in the enforcement
stage, in accordance with the notice-and-take-down procedure provided for in
the E-Commerce Directive, which reflects the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act. Internet service providers’ liability is perhaps the most sensitive issue
within the new paradigm describing the relationship between copyright and
other fundamental rights. Liability of internet intermediaries also allows the
connection between the two main understandings of freedom of expression
that are confronted when it comes to the internet: the American quasi-absolute
view enshrined in the First Amendment and the more balanced construction,
which is a distinguishing feature of European constitutionalism. It is not by
coincidence that the provisions on internet service providers’ liability are
regarded as free speech rules1 and that the latest regulatory developments
have shed some light on the key role of these actors vis-à-vis content as well
as data – even if no reform has taken place in the liability regime provided
for in the E-Commerce Directive so far. Some recent stances of the European
Court of Human Rights are witness to this understanding, which is reflected in
a set of judgments where the Court had to review whether measures imposed
by national authorities affecting internet service providers amounted to
impermissible limitations of freedom of expression pursuant to Article 10 of
the Convention. Also, in view of the difficulties and uncertainties surround-
ing the liability of service providers, some jurisdictions have implemented
public enforcement procedures for copyright online, which have paralleled
the already existing ‘traditional’ private enforcement mechanisms. The intro-
duction of similar procedures, in turn, mirrors the limited effectiveness of
the well-established enforcement avenues in the age of the internet. If the
latter have not become per se obsolete, they are in any case far from ensuring
an effective protection to right holders in case of infringements occurring
on the internet. The choice to resort to public enforcement also has brought
into the scene administrative authorities such as the Italian Communications
Authority (AGCOM) or the French ad hoc-established Haute Autorité pour la
diffusion des oeuvres et la protection des droits sur l’internet (HADOPI). The
devolution of powers (whether regulatory or sanctioning) to these authorities
has nevertheless resulted in further discussions regarding the legitimacy of
non-judicial bodies interference, through the respective orders, with the pub-
lication of content or information by users. So, again, the focus of the debate
centres on the remedies available on the internet and the relevant constitutional
permissibility.
1
See ‘Section 230 as First Amendment rule’ (2018) 131 Harvard Law Review
2027.
Introduction 3
Can the above be described as ‘a dog that bites its own tail’? Perhaps it is,
but the questions highlighted so far still provide food for thought, in spite of
the recent developments marked by the approval of the DSM Directive. The
ambition of this book is to try to resolve some of the aforesaid unresolved
issues in the relationship between copyright and other rights and freedoms
through a comparative and European perspective. As usual, the book is not
supposed to provide an answer to the above questions, but rather to constitute
an attempt to revisit a critical understanding of some of the underlying legal
issues.
In order to fulfil this goal, the book offers an overview including a variety of
focus points from the public and private law perspectives.
Fiona Macmillan’s chapter opens the book by providing a thorough inves-
tigation of a frequently underestimated point in the debate, i.e., the reach of
the constitutional protection granted to freedom of speech. The author, in
particular, notes that the traditional understanding of free speech as a principle
enforceable only vis-à-vis the state would significantly undermine the impor-
tance of this argument in the copyright context. According to Macmillan, ‘if
freedom of speech theories do not take private power into account they have
failed to keep up with social and economic developments’; accordingly, she
argues that ‘freedom of speech principles should restrain not just state attempts
to restrict speech using copyright but also such attempts by those holding
significant non-state power’. The chapter captures an issue that has recently
regained significant attention among scholars, most notably in respect of the
role of digital platforms. The understanding of the degree of enforceability of
some constitutional protections constitutes in fact a key factor for evaluating
the relationship between copyright and other competing rights in light of the
specific nature of the former.
The chapter by Alain Strowel explores the added value inherent in Article
17 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, looking at
the interpretation of the Court of Justice of this provision in the context of its
relevant case law. The focus on Article 17 unveils the importance attached to
intellectual property in the context of the post-Lisbon European Union. Even if
the Charter did not establish any new right, but only reaffirmed, as stated in its
preamble, the rights contained therein (‘as they result from the constitutional
traditions and international obligations common to the Member States, the
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms, the Social Charters adopted by the Union and by the Council of
Europe and the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and
of the European Court of Human Rights’), the entry into force of the Charter
marked a new season in European constitutionalism. This new phase is wit-
nessed by the case law of the Court of Justice, most notably by the judgments
concerning the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the digital age.
4 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
looking at the cases from the two jurisdictions it emerges that the US clearly
places stricter reliance on the internal copyright safeguards. Yet, in both
systems the judiciary has employed a certain degree of flexibility when bal-
ancing copyright and other constitutional rights. In developing this argument,
they focus in particular on the role of exceptions and limitations, fair use and
the idea/expression dichotomy as well as that of the interpretative techniques
(such as proportionality and the balancing test), questioning whether the use
of such categories will further reduce or widen the gap between the two sides
of the ocean.
Giorgio Giannone Codiglione and Marco Bassini apply a comparative
analysis to explore the differences between private and public enforcement
in the digital age. Most notably, they speculate on the reasons behind the
emergence of new administrative procedures which paralleled the already
existing traditional private enforcement mechanisms. The chapter delves into
a comparison between the French HADOPI law and the Italian regulation
adopted by AGCOM. The authors highlight that the different outcomes of
these procedures may have depended on the remedies available to contrast
copyright infringements on the internet and on the different degree of involve-
ment of internet service providers, most likely in light of the uncertainties of
the relevant legal regime.
This overview is by no means exhaustive; however, it aims to point out
the problems which the recent legislative reforms and developments in case
law seem far from having resolved. These problems, accordingly, will likely
remain part of the political agenda of the European Union and Member States
for some time.
2. ‘Speaking truth to power’: copyright
and the control of speech
Fiona Macmillan
1 INTRODUCTION
The division between public and private law is the legal system’s own special
take on a larger debate about the meaning and impact of attempts to make and
maintain the distinction between what is properly located in the public sphere
of life and what is, by its nature, private. As much as we might question its
theoretical and empirical validity, the distinction between public and private
law exerts normative force over attempts to theorize and understand law in
a variety of areas.1 At some level, and as this chapter tries to demonstrate,
we know there is a problem here. We know that this mode of organizing and
categorizing law creates systemic dissonance that is never resolved because
the eye of law, focussed on the maintenance of this division, fails to see the
problem. It fails to see that distinguishing between what is public and what is
private in terms of legal rights can never be simple or precise. It fails to see
that, whatever the law says, private and public rights and duties have a way
of bleeding into each other in their real life applications. In some ways, this
problem is a consequence of the larger failure to acknowledge the fact that
nothing enforced by a publicly administered legislative and judicial system can
ever be considered truly private. But this is only the beginning of the compli-
cations that this distinction produces.
The various laws regulating speech or speech acts must always focus on
a moment that is, in some sense, public – or, perhaps it would be better to
say, that they do not attach in the sort of situations that might be considered
to be clearly private. Leaving aside regimes that clandestinely collect infor-
1
Scott Veitch, ‘Law and the public/private distinction’ in Emilios Christodoulidis,
Ruth Dukes and Marco Goldoni (eds), Research Handbook on Critical Legal Theory
(Edward Elgar Publishing 2019).
6
‘Speaking truth to power’: copyright and the control of speech 7
mation on things that people say in domestic settings2 – and, for the moment,
leaving aside the possibility that such speech is now recorded by one or other
of the technological devices that we think is providing us with a domestic
service – direct legal consequences do not attach to things that we say in what
we hopefully describe as ‘the privacy of our own home’. This distinguishes
speech from other acts that do not enjoy a similar immunity. Acts of criminal
violence or tortious negligence, to take two examples, attract adverse legal
consequences whether performed in public or private. The idea that speech can
inhabit a private zone where law does not follow might account for particular
instances of resistance to the idea that its regulation might have significant
public effects. The various areas of law governing speech disclose no consist-
ent approach to these questions. Defamation law, for example, which governs
speech acts in public but makes them the subject of private rights to limit
speech, has – at least in some jurisdictions – taken on board some of the public
consequences of giving individuals control over speech in the public sphere.
However, the obvious limits to complete freedom of speech that defamation
law comprises have been regarded as significant only in relation to the ability
of those considered to be ‘public figures’ to sue for defamation. The common
law development in this area owes much to the well-known United States
case of New York Times Co. v Sullivan,3 in which the Supreme Court made
the constitutional protection of freedom of speech in the First Amendment
applicable to certain defamation actions by holding that a public official was
only able to maintain an action for defamation in relation to his or her official
capacity if the public official was able to prove malice on the part of the person
making the alleged defamatory comment. The reasoning in New York Times
Co. v Sullivan rests, in part, on the importance of freedom of expression on
what seem to be unambiguously public matters.4 Subsequently, the United
Kingdom House of Lords (as it then was) in Derbyshire County Council v
Times Newspapers Ltd5 was influenced by similar considerations when it
decided that municipal corporations should not be able to sue for defamation,
as was the Australian High Court in Theophanous v Herald and Weekly Times6
2
I am thinking here of the sort of surveillance that characterized a number of
regimes behind the so-called Iron Curtain, including that of the German Democratic
Republic (East Germany), portrayed in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s film, The
Lives of Others (Wiedemann/Berg 2006) and in Anna Funder, Stasiland: Stories from
behind the Berlin Wall (Granta 2003).
3
376 US 254 (1964).
4
376 US 254 (1964), at 269ff. See also ‘Libel and the corporate plaintiff’ (1969)
69 Columbia Law Review 1496, 1501–2.
5
[1993] 2 WLR 449. See also Fiona Patfield (Macmillan), ‘Defamation, freedom
of speech and corporations’ (1993) The Juridical Review 294.
6
(1994) 124 ALR 1.
8 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
in deciding that politicians should not be able to sue for defamation in relation
to certain matters touching their office.
This pattern of decision-making, which focusses on permitting a wider
range of speech in relation to those wielding certain types of power, has also
had an impact on judicial approaches to controlling speech said to be in breach
of confidence. In Commonwealth jurisdictions it still seems as though the (or,
at least, a) high-water mark in this respect was the Spycatcher litigation, in
which courts around the common law world considered the extent to which
the public interest in the protection of free speech might justify breaching
confidence with respect to the national security activities of government.7 The
approaches of the various courts before which this litigation took place are
consistent with the thread already identified in relation to the free speech/defa-
mation relationship: namely, that freedom of speech considerations are strong
where the speech in question addresses itself to a manifestation of power, and
this is particularly so when the power in question is somehow related to public
administration and government.8 Nevertheless, a long line of case law makes it
clear that, at least so far as breach of confidence is concerned, there is a public
interest in protecting freedom of speech that goes beyond speech focussing on
government.9
Given the role of copyright as another important right regulating speech, one
might have expected to see similar developments in copyright jurisprudence.
However, the least ambiguous cases in which freedom of speech consider-
ations have affected the scope of copyright most often occur in those cases
where there is a dual, or alternative, claim for breach of copyright and breach
of confidence.10 The public/private divide in legal discourse clearly has a role
in explaining copyright’s particular resistance to limitations imposed on it in
the name of freedom of speech. However, this factor seems to have had more
7
In Australia, AG (UK) v Heinemann Publishers Australia Pty Ltd and Wright
(1987) 10 NSWLR 86 (CA, NSW) and (1988) 78 ALR 449 (HCA); in New Zealand,
AG (UK) v Wellington Newspapers Ltd [1988] 1 NZLR 129; in the United Kingdom,
AG v Guardian Newspapers Ltd (No. 2) [1990] 1 AC 109 (HL). See also Fiona Patfield
(Macmillan), ‘The House of Lords decision in the Spycatcher litigation’ (1989) 1
European Intellectual Property Review 27; id, ‘Spycatcher worldwide – An overview’
(1989) 6 European Intellectual Property Review 201.
8
For earlier examples of breach of confidence cases involving speech about
government activities, see AG v Jonathan Cape Ltd [1976] QB 752 (QBD) and
Commonwealth of Australia v John Fairfax & Sons Ltd (1980) 32 ALR 485 (HCA).
9
See, e.g., Gartside v Outram (1856) 26 LJ Ch 113; Hubbard v Vosper [1972] 1
All ER 1023; Beloff v Pressdram [1973] 1 All ER 241; Woodward v Hutchins [1977]
2 All ER 751; Francome v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd [1984] 1 WLR 892; Lion
Laboratories v Evans [1985] QB 526.
10
E.g., Beloff v Pressdram (n 9); AG v Guardian Newspapers Ltd (No. 2) (n 7).
‘Speaking truth to power’: copyright and the control of speech 9
11
See William Fisher, ‘Theories of intellectual property’ in Stephen R. Munzer
(ed.), New Essays in the Legal and Political Theory of Property (Cambridge University
Press 2001); Jeremy Waldron, ‘From authors to copiers: Individual rights and social
values in intellectual property’ (1993) 68 Chicago-Kent Law Review 841.
12
For a temporal arc of some of the foundational scholarship in this respect, see
Neil W. Netanel, ‘Copyright and a democratic civil society’ (1996) 106 Yale Law
Journal 283; Jonathan Griffiths and Uma Suthersanen (eds), Copyright and Free
Speech: Comparative and International Analyses (Oxford University Press 2005);
Neil W. Netanel, Copyright’s Paradox (Oxford University Press 2008); Carys J. Craig,
Copyright, Communication and Culture: Towards a Relational Theory of Copyright
Law (Edward Elgar Publishing 2011); Anne Barron, ‘Kant, copyright and communica-
tive freedom’ (2012) 31 Law & Philosophy 1; Abraham Drassinower, What’s Wrong
with Copying? (Harvard University Press 2015). See also Fisher (n 11) 189–94.
13
Even if it is the case that this characterization carries its own theoretical problems
and misgivings: see, e.g., the essays collected in Helena R. Howe and Jonathan Griffiths
(eds), Concepts of Property in Intellectual Property Law (Cambridge University Press
2013); Jose Bellido, ‘Book review: Concepts of Property in Intellectual Property Law’
(2014) 2 Birkbeck Law Review 147, which contains an excellent survey of the theoreti-
cal literature on copyright as a property right.
14
Usually depending on Lockean arguments (see Fisher (n 11) 184–9), but some-
times also invoking a Kantian natural rights discourse; see Barron (n 12).
15
On this characterization of copyright, see Fiona Macmillan, ‘Looking back to
look forward: Is there a future for human rights in the WTO?’ (2005) 6 International
Trade Law and Regulation 163; Fiona Macmillan, ‘The World Trade Organization
and the turbulent legacy of international economic law-making in the long twenti-
eth century’ in Julio Faundez and Celine Tan (eds), International Law, Economic
10 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
19
Eric Barendt, Freedom of Speech (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2007),
Ch. 1, citing John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (Everyman 1972, first published 1859) and
John Milton, Areopagitica: A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing (1644) in
Prose Writings (Everyman 1958). In relation to Milton’s view of the system of press
licensing, which may be regarded as a forebear of modern copyright law, see W.S.
Holdsworth, ‘Press control and copyright in the 16th and 17th centuries’ (1920) 29 Yale
Law Journal 841, 850–51.
20
See Barendt (n 19).
12 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
21
Ibid.
22
See, e.g., Elanco Products Ltd v Mandops (Agrochemical Specialists) Ltd [1980]
RPC 213.
23
See, e.g., Ravenscroft v Herbert [1980] RPC 193.
24
There is some authority for the proposition that when an idea can be expressed
in only one way then its expression is not protected by copyright, see, e.g., Total
Information Processing Systems Ltd v Daman Ltd [1992] FSR 171; and (maybe)
Kenrick v Lawrence (1890) 25 QBD 29.
25
Barendt (n 19).
26
See Dorean M. Koenig, ‘Joe Camel and the First Amendment: The dark side of
copyrighted and trademark-protected icons’ (1994) 11 Thomas M Cooley Law Review
803, 814, citing Melville Nimmer, Freedom of Speech: A Treatise of the Theory of the
First Amendment, vol. 2.05 [C] (Matthew Bender 1984) 2.
‘Speaking truth to power’: copyright and the control of speech 13
27
See Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously (Duckworth 1977); Barendt (n
19).
28
Constitution of the United States of America, First Amendment; European
Convention on Human Rights, Art. 10.
29
Frederick Schauer, Free Speech: A Philosophical Enquiry (Cambridge University
Press 1982) 55–6.
30
Barendt (n 19).
31
For a strong endorsement of this position, see, e.g., Alexander Meiklejohn, ‘The
First Amendment is an absolute’ (1961) Supreme Court Review 245.
14 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
One difficulty in using the commonly asserted theoretical justifications for free
speech examined above in developing a coherent freedom of speech concept
in relation to copyright is the notable emphasis (at least in two of them) on
the role of freedom of speech in public affairs and/or the safeguarding of the
democratic system. One consequence of this emphasis might be to underrate
the importance of freedom of speech in relation to what might be called
cultural speech, such as artistic and scholarly speech, which is substantially
regulated by copyright restrictions. The (perfectly reasonable) argument that
such speech is also political would reduce copyright to almost nothing and,
more importantly, probably also dilute the importance of the concept of the
political in the freedom of speech justifications. Another possible consequence
of the emphasis on the public sphere and the protection of political speech is
the drawing of a distinction between political and commercial speech where
political speech enjoys freedom of speech protections that are not afforded to
commercial speech. This would leave room for a concept of copyright that
protected commercial speech, but it would also run the risk of limiting speech
in relation to significant sites of power.
32
See, e.g., Netanel (1996) (n 12); Netanel (2008) (n 12); Drassinower (n 12).
‘Speaking truth to power’: copyright and the control of speech 15
33
E.g., Robert M. Gellman, ‘Twin evils: Government copyright and copyright-like
controls over government information’ (1995) 45 Syracuse Law Review 999.
34
See, e.g., Fiona Macmillan, ‘The emergence of the World Trade Organization:
Another triumph of corporate capitalism?’ in Fleur Johns, Richard Joyce and Sundhya
Pahuja (eds), Events: The Force of International Law (Routledge/Taylor & Francis
2010).
16 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
speech. The system of press licensing established by the English Tudor mon-
archs, which was precursor to modern copyright law, gave substantial power
to control all publications to the Company of Stationers.35 The purpose of this
was the imposition of a censorship regime operated, not by the government,
but by a separate body of individuals. This power persisted until the end
of the seventeenth century when arguments about hardship to authors, the
adverse impact on learning, and on individual liberties meant that the relevant
legislation was not renewed.36 While the succeeding Copyright Act of 1709,
the first of the modern English copyright statutes, may have moved copyright
away from the censorship system used by the Tudor and Stewart monarchs,
the edifice that has been built upon it has provided the basis for the build-up
of considerable ‘private’ power in the hands of the media and entertainment
corporations.37
The question of corporate power built on the edifice of copyright, and its
implications for freedom of speech, are further examined in the third and final
section of this chapter. The point to be underlined here is that the various
theoretical justifications of the free speech principle do not take sufficient
account of what might be described as private power. This creates difficulty in
using these theories to form a free speech principle in relation to copyright. We
need to recognize instead that the public/private distinction is an arbitrary and
slippery one, especially in so-called liberal democracies. There is a line of US
defamation cases that appear to recognize this point, extending the principle
in New York Times Co. v Sullivan that a public official cannot maintain an
action in relation to their official capacity without proving malice in ways that
recognize the significance of so-called private power,38 but there has been little
recognition of this point in relation to copyright law.
35
Holdsworth (n 19).
36
Ibid, 855–6.
37
Abel (n 16) 48–58; Fiona Macmillan, ‘Commodification and cultural ownership’
in Griffiths and Suthersanen (n 12).
38
See the line of cases established by Curtis Publishing Co. v Butts, 338 US 130
(1967) and Gertz v Robert Welch Inc., 418 US 323 (1974).
‘Speaking truth to power’: copyright and the control of speech 17
speech through the use of copyright.39 However, for reasons canvassed above,
limiting the free speech principle to state or ‘public’ power is problematic
because what constrains speech is the exercise of disproportionate power, and
it is not clear why it should matter whether this power is exercised by the state
or otherwise. Figures that are technically ‘private’ can constrain speech with
remarkable effectiveness. To the extent that freedom of speech theories do not
take private power into account they have failed to keep up with social and
economic developments and are in need of some consequential refinements. In
particular, so far as copyright is concerned, this chapter argues that freedom of
speech principles should restrain not just state attempts to restrict speech using
copyright but also such attempts by those holding significant non-state power.
As already noted, the justificatory theories for a principle of free speech also
raise questions about the type of speech to which they apply. The argument
from democracy appears to justify the protection of free speech involving fact,
information, and expressions of opinion, which would seem to have a sub-
stantial overlap with the sorts of speech that might be restricted by copyright.
However, the democracy justification might be regarded as limited to things
that are to be somehow defined as ‘political’. There are some things that obvi-
ously fall inside the usually understood scope of the political. So, for example,
a speech relating to matters of present legislative concern or debate about those
holding political office are clearly within the scope of this concept. A good
argument might also be made that it covers the information and opinion on
matters of public concern. This would cover a wide range of things and extend
to much of what might be called artistic speech, such as speech in novels,
plays, paintings, sculpture and film. It seems undeniable that plenty of artistic
speech of this type is political.40 The application of a free speech principle to
artistic speech might also be justified according to Mill’s truth theory. This
theory, which applies mainly to opinion, might also be used in relation to
39
In any case, not all states permit their governments to hold copyright in docu-
ments they produce: see, e.g., the position in 17 USC 105 (1988). The Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Paris Act, 1971), Art. 2(4), makes this
a matter for individual determination for the states in the Berne Union. The same posi-
tion applies under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights, Art. 9(1). For a general discussion of this point, see
Gellman (n 33).
40
Examples of this abound; as does the capacity of cultural works to redefine politi-
cal space, as to which see, e.g., Costas Douzinas, Philosophy & Resistance in the Crisis
(Polity 2013) 196–7: ‘Public art, film shows, music performances, literary readings and
debates in squares would produce an alternative political culture. These proposals aim
at repoliticizing politics and introducing the ethos of the collective into all aspects of
public life.’ See also Gerard Delanty, Liana Giorgi and Monica Sassatelli, Festivals and
the Cultural Public Sphere (Routledge 2013).
18 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
things such as scholarly writing and journalism. All these types of speech are,
subject to time limitations, covered by copyright and none of them is excluded
from the free speech protections of either the US Constitution or the European
Convention on Human Rights.
As already noted, one of the most difficult forms of speech to accommodate
within the justificatory theories of free speech is commercial speech. There
has been a long and substantial line of US jurisprudence on the question of the
extent to which freedom of commercial speech is constitutionally protected.41
The position now appears to be that commercial speech is protected if it is not
unlawful or misleading, with the result that any purported restriction on com-
mercial speech is only consistent with the First Amendment if that restriction
‘directly and materially advances a substantial state interest in a manner no
more extensive than necessary to serve that interest’.42 The justification for
the improvement in the status of commercial speech over time is that ‘[t]he
commercial marketplace, like other spheres of our social and cultural life, pro-
vides a forum where ideas and information flourish’.43 Nevertheless, under US
constitutional law, commercial speech does not seem to enjoy the same levels
of protection as some other forms of speech, such as explicitly political speech
or artistic speech. This, of course, means that it is necessary to work out the
difference between commercial speech and other types of speech. For the US
Supreme Court commercial speech appears to mean speech engaged in for the
sole or predominant purpose of commercial gain, such as advertising.44 This
means that speech would not be commercial merely because it resulted in com-
mercial gain. The types of copyright works amounting to commercial speech
might be texts of advertisements, musical jingles for advertisements, the film
footage of an advertisement, and commercial logos. However, despite making
lists of this sort, it is nevertheless clear that the categories of political, artistic
and commercial speech bleed into one another in ways that might sometimes
make it difficult to distinguish between them.
These types of distinctions are not, of course, made by copyright law, which
imposes restrictions on speech by way of a statutory monopoly irrespective of
41
See, e.g., Valentine v Chrestensen, 36 US 52 (1942); Bigelow v Virginia, 421
US 809 (1975); Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v Virginia Citizens Consumer
Council, 425 US 748 (1976); Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v Public Service
Commission of New York, 447 US 557 (1980); City of Cincinnati v Discovery Network,
Inc., 113 S Ct 1505 (1993); Edenfield v Fane, 113 S Ct 1792 (1993); Ibanez v Florida
Department of Business and Professional Regulation, 114 S Ct 2084 (1994).
42
Ibanez v Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (n 41)
2088, although there are some cases that may not be reconcilable with this approach.
43
Edenfield v Fane (n 41) 1798.
44
See, e.g., Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v Public Service Commission of
New York (n 41). See also Koenig (n 26) 832–5.
‘Speaking truth to power’: copyright and the control of speech 19
Implicit in the statutory monopoly is the copyright owner’s right to withhold his
expression from the public. A consequence of this basic right of the owner is his
right to delimit the size and economic status of the audience to which the work shall
be disseminated by specification of the number and price of the copies to be sold.45
Assuming for the moment that such rights also conflict with the freedom of
speech principle, then it follows that this principle may prevent the enforce-
ment of some of the exclusive rights conferred by copyright. Proceeding on
the basis of the justificatory discourse of the free speech principle, the level
of non-enforceability of the exclusive rights conferred by copyright would
be determined in accordance with the importance of the particular type of
speech as characterized according to the free speech discourse. Accordingly,
copyright would not be permitted to place excessive restrictions on informa-
tion or opinion relating to explicitly political debate, nor that which relates to
moral, scholarly or artistic expression. On the other hand, this approach would
suggest that we should be reluctant to relax copyright restrictions in relation
to copyrighted commercial speech as such speech appears to rate lower pro-
tection according to the freedom of speech principle. This is the point where
this type of argument seems to lead us into a paradox. Our world, on-line and
off-line, is saturated by advertising. In fact, given the prevalence of advertising
as a business model for online platforms and search engines, it may be difficult
to distinguish between advertising and other speech. And clearly the power of
advertisers in shaping the world is immense. (This power would explain, for
example, why we continue to consume vast amounts of unnecessary products
even at the expense of the survival of the planet as a habitable environment for
human life.) Advertisers would, I imagine, be delighted to hear that their cop-
yrightable speech – including text, images, jingles and icons – was entitled to
a higher level of copyright protection than forms of political or artistic speech.
Likewise those wishing to breach copyright in order to gain a commercial
advantage by free-riding on the works of others, would probably be pleased
to hear that political and artistic works would be subject to a lesser standard
of copyright protection. Focussing just on the nature of the copyright work,
assessed in accordance with its significance in the freedom of speech context,
produces some strange results.
These results seem strange because they appear to ignore the values that
are served by copyright law. If freedom of speech is not an absolute principle
45
Paul Goldstein, ‘Copyright and the First Amendment’ (1970) 70 Columbia Law
Review 983, 989.
20 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
the reason for this must be the need to accommodate its value with other
values regarded as having importance. In order, therefore, to proceed towards
some sort of accommodation between freedom of speech and the restrictions
imposed by copyright it is necessary to make some assessment of the social
value(s) that are reflected by the justification(s) for copyright restrictions.
It is at this point that the waters become even more muddy because, while
the restrictions imposed by copyright law have two dominant justificatory
discourses, there is considerable disagreement and contention about if and
how it should be justified, and to what extent these justificatory discourses
reflect the reality of copyright’s application to speech in the real world.46 Both
justificatory discourses cast a rosy, and even romantic, light on copyright
law.47 Amongst those prone to be receptive to this type of thing, who would
not have been seduced by the attractions of the incentive-based justification,
with its promises of ever more cultural production and innovation? And, as for
the natural rights theory, the life-affirming qualities of the idea of recognizing
the special status of acts of cultural production and those who engage in them
is more or less evident. Critical engagement with copyright law has, however,
exposed its uncertain and compromised relationship with a range of concepts
that inform these justificatory discourses. The copyright treatment meted out to
things such as authorship, creativity and cultural production – not to mention
their specific instantiations in literature, drama, dance, art, music and film –
have been exposed in a probing, excellent and often interdisciplinary literature
that inevitably dowses overly romantic sensibilities.48 This body of literature
46
The scale of this contention might be understood by reference to the fact that it
often goes under the rubric of ‘the copyright wars’, which are one part of the greater
conflict over intellectual property: see, e.g., Adrian Johns, Piracy: The Intellectual
Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates (University of Chicago Press 2010); Peter
Decherney, Hollywood’s Copyright Wars: From Edison to the Internet (Columbia
University Press 2012); Peter Baldwin, The Copyright Wars: Three Centuries of
Transatlantic Battle (Princeton University Press 2014).
47
For two accounts of these discourses, see Fisher (n 11) and Waldron (n 11).
48
There is a large literature here, of which an indicative list might include the fol-
lowing: Rosemary J. Coombe, The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties: Authorship,
Appropriation and the Law (Duke University Press 1998); Craig (n 12); Jane Gaines,
Contested Culture: The Image, the Voice and the Law (University of North Carolina
Press 1991); Eva Hemmungs Wirtén, No Trespassing: Authorship, Intellectual Property
Rights, and the Boundaries of Globalization (University of Toronto Press 2004); Daniel
McClean and Karsten Schubert (eds), Dear Images: Art, Copyright and Culture (ICA
2002); Netanel (2008) (n 12); Patrick Parrinder and Warren Chernaik (eds), Textual
Monopolies: Literary Copyright and the Public Domain (University of London
Press 1997); Mark Rose, Authors and Owners: The Invention of Copyright (Harvard
University Press 1993); David Saunders, Authorship and Copyright (Routledge 1992);
Brad Sherman and Alain Strowel (eds), Of Authors and Origins: Essays on Copyright
‘Speaking truth to power’: copyright and the control of speech 21
addresses, in varying ways and degrees, the mismatch between concepts and
conditions of creativity and cultural production, on the one hand, and their
mutant second life according to copyright (and other intellectual property
laws), on the other. It also reflects on the consequences of copyright’s legal
identity as a property right and the way in which the occidental framing of
the property concept impacts on creativity and cultural production globally.
However, it was perhaps the emergence of a literature on the political economy
of copyright49 that did most to expose its ugly underbelly and the way in which
the romantic discourse of copyright has been corrupted by its engagement with
the capitalist system. The particular point of this literature, and its relevance
in the current context, is that it focusses on the way in which copyright, as
a property right, has been used as a base upon which to build substantial blocks
of power, not only in the market place but also in social and cultural terms.50
This is significant because if freedom of speech is, expressed generally, about
speaking truth to power, and if copyright facilitates the build-up of power, then
this makes accommodation of the two sets of values rather tricky. It suggests
that, as with defamation and the protection of confidential information, where
copyright is a site of power it should give way to free speech principles. This
would move the focus of attention away from the nature or type of speech
copyright is protecting and towards the question of who is the speaker and
what they are saying.
However, at the same time, focussing only on the power of the copyright
owner might result in a type of freedom of speech overkill. If we were to
make a loose comparison with the approach taken in the US to the relation-
ship between defamation and free speech, we would see that power does not
deprive legal persons of the right to sue for defamation. Instead the effect of
power is to make it more difficult. In the case of copyright, making it more
difficult to maintain an action for breach of copyright where the copyright
holder is in a position of power or influence might be achieved by focussing
not on the nature of the speech protected by copyright but rather on the nature
Law (Clarendon 1994); Martha Woodmansee and Peter Jaszi (eds), The Construction
of Authorship: Textual Appropriation in Law and Literature (Duke University Press
1994).
49
In particular, Ronald V. Bettig, Copyrighting Culture: The Political Economy of
Intellectual Property (Westview 1996).
50
E.g., Fiona Macmillan, ‘The cruel ©: Copyright and film’ (2002) European
Intellectual Property Review 483; id, ‘How the movie moguls learned to stop worrying
and love the new technology’ in Leslie Moran, Elena Loizidou, Ian Christie and Emma
Sandon (eds), Law’s Moving Image: Law and Film (Glasshouse 2004); Macmillan (n
37); id, ‘Public interest and the public domain in an era of corporate dominance’ in
Birgitte Andersen (ed.), Intellectual Property Rights: Innovation, Governance and the
Institutional Environment (Edward Elgar Publishing 2006).
22 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
51
See also Barendt (n 19).
52
See, e.g., Joost Smiers, Arts under Pressure: Protecting Cultural Diversity in the
Age of Globalization (Zed Books 2003).
53
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (Awnsham & Churchill 1690), Ch.
5. For its dependence on Lockean arguments, Fisher describes a version of this argu-
ment as labour theory, subjecting it to a pungent critique: see Fisher (n 11) 184–9.
54
Much tends to be made here of the argument in Johann Gottlieb Fichte,
‘Proof of the unlawfulness of reprinting: A rationale and a parable’ in Berlinische
Monatschrift (1793) 443 (translated by Martha Woodmansee and reprinted in Lionel
Bently and Martin Kretschmer (eds), Primary Sources on Copyright 1450–1900,
www.copyrighthistory.org, accessed 9 September 2018, which purports to rely on
the argument in Immanuel Kant, ‘On the wrongfulness of unauthorised publication of
books’ in Berlinische Monatschrift (1785) (translated by Mary J. Gregor and repub-
‘Speaking truth to power’: copyright and the control of speech 23
57
Ruth Towse, Creativity, Incentive and Reward: An Economic Analysis of
Copyright and Culture in the Information Age (Edward Elgar Publishing 2001), esp.
Chs 6 and 8, in which it is argued that copyright generates little income for most cre-
ative artists, but is nevertheless valuable to creative artists for reasons of status and
control of their work.
58
Drassinower (n 12).
59
See the sources cited in n 12. See also Fisher (n 11) 189–94.
60
Report of the Special Rapporteur (n 56), paras 49–51.
61
See, e.g., Drassinower (n 12) and Fiona Macmillan, ‘Finding the inherent dignity
of copyright: On Drassinower’s what’s wrong with copying?’ (2016) 28(3) Intellectual
Property Journal 289.
62
As is well demonstrated by Drassinower (n 12).
63
Waldron (n 11) 851.
64
There is, even in critical copyright scholarship, little critique of these assump-
tions: see Lawrence Liang, ‘Beyond representation: The figure of the pirate’ in Mario
Biagioli, Peter Jaszi and Martha Woodmansee (eds), Making and Unmaking Intellectual
Property: Creative Production in Legal and Cultural Perspective (University of
‘Speaking truth to power’: copyright and the control of speech 25
of this common concern with creativity, the porous borders between these two
strategic positions have also been used to create compelling arguments about
the importance of balance and the maintenance of the public domain.65 The
incentive argument probably comes closest to reflecting the shape of copyright
law in most common law jurisdictions.66 And it is not irrelevant in the present
context that many of its scholarly advocates have significant concerns about
increasing imbalances in the law’s trajectory. These imbalances have appeared
not only between copyright owners and users of copyright works, but also
between the actual authors of copyright works and those who invest in their
production and distribution. The imbalance between authors and investors is
a consequence of the fact that the grant of copyright is used as an incentive for
both, but that one of these groups is more powerful and much better organized
to influence the development of copyright law.67
The present discussion accepts that copyright’s actual and potential social
value is embedded in the second and third justificatory discourses discussed
above. While the second justificatory discourse elevates copyright to the status
of a fundamental right, its focus on copyright as a speech right allows more
scope to reconcile it with the right to freedom of speech. Both the second
and third justificatory discourses place value on copyright as a stimulus to,
and protection of, cultural production and its diffusion. These types of social
values give us something to go on when it comes to balancing the social value
of free speech against the social value of copyright in circumstances where
a copyright infringer’s right to free speech appears to be in conflict with the
copyright owner’s right to restrict speech. Following this approach, we might
be able to draw some tentative lines in the sand. For example, it might follow
that politically motivated speech infringing copyright in an artistic work might
provide some basis for the relaxation of copyright restrictions on freedom of
speech grounds. Stronger cases, however, might involve politically motivated
speech infringing copyright in informational material of political significance
or in a commercial work. The fate of commercial speech that infringes copy-
right in, for example, an expression of political views could be considered in
Chicago Press 2011) 175–6, citing John H. Mason, The Value of Creativity: The
Origins and Emergence of a Modern Belief (Ashgate 2003).
65
See especially James Boyle, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the
Mind (Yale University Press 2008).
66
E.g., the English Statute of Anne 1710 describes itself as ‘An Act for the
Encouragement of Learning’ and in the United States the incentive approach is consti-
tutionally mandated: US Constitution, Art. 1, s. 8, which refers to promoting ‘the pro-
gress of science and useful arts’. See also Fisher (n 11) 173–6.
67
Report of the Special Rapporteur (n 56) paras 38–43; Macmillan (n 15); Boyle (n
65) 196–8.
26 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
light of the approach of the US Supreme Court in Central Hudson.68 The fact,
in this scenario, that the infringing speech is commercial speech might suggest
a cautious approach to its protection by free speech principles, while the signif-
icance of what is revealed by the infringing speech might justify a relaxation of
the copyright restrictions on free speech grounds.
A further matter that should be mentioned as having the capacity to affect
the question of whether speech infringing copyright is entitled to free speech
protection is the issue of the particular exclusive right comprised in copyright
that is being infringed. In most jurisdictions, and subject to some variations,
copyright restricts not only copying of the protected work, but also the fol-
lowing sorts of things: issuing copies of the work to the public; performing,
showing or playing the work in public; broadcasting the work or including it in
a cable programme services; making it available online; making an adaptation
of the work, or doing any of the foregoing in relation to an adaptation.69 Free
speech considerations seem more obviously relevant to infringements of the
exclusive right of first publication than, for example, to infringement of the
exclusive right to copy the work in situations where it is already readily avail-
able pursuant to the authorization of the copyright owner. Another possible
variant that might be introduced relates to the question of who holds the cop-
yright at the time of the infringement. For instance, perhaps where important
free speech considerations arise, more weight should be given to a copyright
in the hands of the living author of the work. There are two reasons for sug-
gesting this. One is to acknowledge the value of copyright in recognizing and/
or encouraging the creativity of such authors. The other brings us back to the
question of power and the way in which it is exercised by corporate agglomer-
ations, usually so-called media and entertainment corporations.
Where copyright is no longer in the hands of the author of the copyright
work, there is a good chance that, instead, it has become an asset of one of
these global corporations. This widespread phenomenon is a consequence of
both the free transferability of copyright in most jurisdictions and the fact that
the power of these corporations in the market for the distribution of literary
works, music and film puts them in the position of being able to compel the
transfer, or exclusive licensing, of copyright as a condition of distribution. The
often expressed hope that this state of affairs might be remedied by author
distribution over forms of digital social media has largely gone unfulfilled. In
our digitally saturated world what the media and entertainment corporations
offer are resources for promoting works and so making them stand out from
the crowd. The power that a small number of global corporations have as
68
See n 41.
69
Cf, e.g., the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s. 16.
‘Speaking truth to power’: copyright and the control of speech 27
a result is built upon the copyright edifice, which facilitates the aggregation in
one corporate group of exclusive rights over all sorts of diverse cultural works.
From a free speech point of view this is a two-edged sword. On the one hand,
these corporations might be regarded as enhancing free speech by providing
a system for dissemination of both information and ideas. On the other hand,
their immense social and cultural power to restrict and shape speech, and
to determine what sorts of things we can read, see and hear, should not be
ignored.70 More than this, given the possibilities of disseminating works on
social media, the role of these corporations in facilitating speech is much less
important than their power to control it. Any balance between authors and
publishers that was achieved by means of the transition from the book licens-
ing system operating in Tudor England, which conferred extensive power on
the Company of Stationers (the publishers), has now been eroded.71 We have
turned full circle. This not only suggests that the free speech rights of authors
should prevail against the power of publishers. It also suggests that the ability
of the media and entertainment corporations to enforce copyright in ways that
restrict freedom of speech, understood in terms of its justificatory discourse,
should be constrained. The application of such ideas in defamation law, and
perhaps breach of confidence law, as discussed above, might provide a model
here. Despite the naysayers, law can nearly always find mechanisms to reflect
positions of principle. What is needed first, however, is recognition of the
seriousness of the problem. If we do not recognize it, we shall not find a way
to resolve it. If we do not find a way to resolve it, then we shall have a minimal
ability to speak truth to the extensive power that operates outside the legal
mechanisms for making political power accountable.
70
For elaborations of this argument, see Macmillan (2002) (n 50); Macmillan
(2004) (n 50); Macmillan (2005) (n 37); Macmillan (2006) (n 50); Macmillan (2017) (n
15).
71
See n 19 and nn 35–6.
3. Copyright strengthened by the
Court of Justice interpretation of
Article 17(2) of the EU Charter of
Fundamental Rights
Alain Strowel
1 INTRODUCTION
With the adoption of Article 17, paragraph 2 of the European Union (EU)
Charter of Fundamental Rights (Charter), intellectual property (IP) was for the
first time expressly recognized in a legally binding international instrument
on fundamental rights.1 The Explanations relating to the Charter (hereinafter:
‘Explanations’), which represent a first-hand ‘interpretation tool’, highlight
both the continuity between the protection specifically recognized for intel-
lectual property and the traditional protection of material property as well
as the congruence between the approach of the Charter and of the European
Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) concerning the right to property.
The Explanations present intellectual property as ‘one aspect of the right to
property’. This connection to property is understandable and justifiable, but it
also obscures the links between certain aspects of those IP rights, for example
the moral and personal prerogatives of creators, and the fundamental rights to
the protection of the person and to private life (enshrined in Articles 3 and 7
of the Charter). Similarly the reference to property cuts the close relationships
those rights have with freedom of expression, which includes the freedom
of creation (Article 11 of the Charter), or with the freedom of the arts and
sciences (Article 13 of the Charter). Other aspects of intellectual property
rights – especially of trademark law which appears as an important guarantee
for fair competition and a vector of information for consumers – can be linked
1
However certain intellectual rights have already been recognized in the Universal
Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (see infra, section 3).
28
Copyright strengthened by CoJ interpretation of Art. 17(2) EU Charter 29
2
Eric Carpano, ‘La Charte, une constitution de la liberté économique des entre-
prises?’ (2018) 2 Revue des affaires europeennes 229 which relies on the CJEU Case
C-390/12 Pfleger et al. [2014] ECLI:EU:C:2014:281, paras 57–60.
3
See infra, section 5.2. The Court of Justice had already clearly highlighted these
conflicts by opposing, prior to the adoption of the Charter, the general principle of the
free exercise of an economic or professional activity, attached to the protection of intel-
lectual property rights (CJEU, Case C-200/96 Metronome Musik [1998] ECLI:EU:C:
1998:172, para 26).
4
The freedom of the arts and sciences as well as the freedom of enterprise, both
of which play a role in founding intellectual rights, are not expressly mentioned in the
ECHR, but rather in the Charter (Arts 13 and 16).
30 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
balancing.5 Before analysing these precedents, the scope of Article 17, para-
graph 2 must be highlighted (see section 2) and the link of this provision with
other international instruments on human rights must be clarified (see section
3).
5
Alain Strowel, ‘Pondération entre liberté d’expression et droit d’auteur sur
Internet: de la réserve des juges de Strasbourg à une concordance pratique par les juges
de Luxembourg’ (2014) Revue trimestrielle des droits de l’homme 889.
6
See Sir Richard Arnold, ‘An overview of European harmonization measures in
intellectual property law’ in Ansgar Ohly and Justine Pila (eds), The Europeanization
of Intellectual Property Law: Towards a European Legal Methodology (Oxford
University Press 2013) 25.
7
Paul Torremans, ‘Article 17(2)’ in Steve Peers, Tamara Hervey, Jeff Kenner and
Angela Ward (eds), The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Hart Publishing 2014)
491.
8
According to the activity reports of the Registry of the Court of Justice, intel-
lectual property belongs to the areas of European law which generate most decisions
(often intellectual property comes first out of the 34 branches of law distinguished by
Copyright strengthened by CoJ interpretation of Art. 17(2) EU Charter 31
the report of the Registry, as having most decisions). On the evolution of the number
of cases on intellectual property brought before the General Court (ex Court of First
Instance) and the Court of Justice between 1999 and 2015, see Vincent Cassiers and
Alain Strowel, ‘Intellectual property law made by the Court of Justice of the European
Union’ in Christophe Geiger, Craig A. Nard and Xavier Seuba (eds), Intellectual
Property and the Judiciary (Edward Elgar Publishing 2018) 175. The numbers are as
follows (for the later years, the number in parentheses indicates whether intellectual
property appears first, second or third in terms of the number of decisions):
99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08
CFI-GC 18 34 37 83 100 110 98 143 168 198
ECJ 2 6 15 8 9 8 24 23 28 36
09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
CFI-GC 207 207 219 238 294 295 303 288 (1) 376 (1) 349 (1)
ECJ 39 49 58 59 62 47 88 80 (1) 60 (3) 74 (2)
See also the analysis by Alain Strowel and Hee-Eun Kim, ‘The balancing impact of
general EU law on European intellectual property jurisprudence’ in Ohly and Pila (n
6) 121.
9
This non-exhaustive list corresponds to that of the Commission Declaration con-
cerning Article 2 of Directive 2004/48/EC on the enforcement of intellectual property
rights ([2005] OJ L94/37).
10
Now harmonized within the European framework by Directive 2016/943/EU of
8 June 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and commercial information
(business secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure.
32 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
11
See the analysis followed here by Ansgar Ohly, ‘European fundamental rights
and intellectual property’ in Ohly and Pila (n 6) 156–9. This is no doubt partly
explained by the careers and specialization in public law of many judges at the CJEU.
12
Art. 5(3)(d) and (k) of Directive 2001/29 on copyright and related rights in the
information society.
13
Regarding parody, see CJEU, Case C-201/13 Johan Deckmyn and Vrijheidsfonds
VZW v Helena Vandersteen and Others [2014] ECLI:EU:C:2014:2132 (the judgment
invokes the prohibition of discrimination based on race and ethnic origin enshrined in
Art. 21(1) of the Charter to limit the the freedom of parody, which is itself enshrined in
the copyright exception of Art. 5(3)(k) of Directive 2001/29 on copyright and related
rights in the information society).
14
Arts 12 to 15 of Directive 2000/31/EC of 8 June 2000 on electronic commerce.
15
Art. 9(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 of 14 June 2017 on the EU trademark
and Art. 10(2)(c) of Directive (EU) 2015/2436 of 16 December 2015, approximating
the laws of the Member States relating to trademarks.
Copyright strengthened by CoJ interpretation of Art. 17(2) EU Charter 33
plays a much more limited role because the legislative provisions tend to use
formulations which appear less broad and flexible.16
16
In patent law, the exclusion of certain inventions from the field of patentabil-
ity for contrariety to ‘ordre public or morality’ (Art. 53 of the the European Patent
Convention) nevertheless offers the possibility of contesting certain patents in the light
of fundamental rights. In a Grand Chamber judgment on the patentability of stem cells
from human embryos (CJEU, Case C-34/10 Oliver Brüstle v Greenpeace [2011] ECLI:
EU:C:2011:669, para 34), the Court of Justice invoked the fundamental right to dignity
to propose a broad interpretation of the restrictions contained in Directive 98/44/EC on
the protection of biotechnological inventions, but did not take into account other com-
peting rights such as the right to scientific development or to health (Arts 13 and 35
Charter).
17
Claude Colombet, Grands principes du droit d’auteur et des droits voisins dans
le monde (Litec, UNESCO 1990).
18
René Cassin, ‘L’intégration, parmi les droits fondamentaux de l’homme, des
droits des créateurs des œuvres de l’esprit’ in Mélanges Marcel Plaisant: Studies on
Industrial, Literary and Artistic Property (Sirey 1959) 229.
34 Copyright and fundamental rights in the digital age
Social and Cultural Rights, which has a binding value for the states which have
ratified it.19
In the European Union, copyright, as an intellectual property right falling
under Article 17(2) of the Charter, is viewed through the prism of property.
Indeed, the first paragraph of Article 17 protects ‘the right to own, use, dispose
of … his or her lawfully acquired possessions’ and defines the conditions
for the taking of property. The property-focused approach of the Charter
diverges from the view adopted in international instruments. Article 17(2) of
the Charter does not mention the protection of the author’s ‘moral interests’
(mentioned in the Universal Declaration; see supra),20 which are reflected
in the moral rights, such as the rights of attribution and of integrity of the
work. Under the property perspective legal persons are more easily qualified
to invoke the copyright/property protection, the sole requirement being that
the author’s right has been assigned to them. In practice, as with other funda-
mental rights with an economic significance, legal persons more often than
individuals claim the fundamental protection of intellectual property before the
courts, in particular before the Court of Justice and the General Court of the
European Union.21 Because of this, the consideration of this right as property
wipes out the link between copyright protection and the natural person of the
author,22 which is regarded as the only possible source of creativity. Stressing
the property dimension might as well put corporate interests at the centre of
other IP rights, such as patents, reducing at the same time the role of the human
inventor within patent law.
By promoting intellectual property as fundamental right, the Charter also
obliterates the relationship that copyright entertains with the cultural sector
19
Article 15:
The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone: (a) To
take part in cultural life; (b) To enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and
its applications; (c) To benefit from the protection of the moral and material
interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which
he is the author.
The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the
full realization of this right shall include those necessary for the conserva-
tion, the development and the diffusion of science and culture.
20
It is true that Art. 17(2) of the Charter covers all intellectual rights, including
those which, unlike copyright, have almost exclusively an economic and commercial
dimension (trademark, patent, etc.).
21
A study has thus pointed out that out of 650 cases (over the years 2013–2018) of
the Court of Justice and the General Court, involving a question of application or inter-
pretation of the Charter, almost two-thirds concerned legal persons claiming a breach
of their fundamental rights (Carpano (n 2) 227).
22
Contra the recognition of this right in the Declaration and the Covenant (see
supra).
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