Articles

• Updates/ Posted November 22nd of 2016

  Legal masterclass for social influencers

  

  On Tuesday 22 November Remco Klöters gives a masterclass for Social Influencers and the law. In this masterclass he will discuss all relevant and applicable laws and regulations for social media influencers. Also Bloggers, vloggers ans social media influencers have to deal with the law. What do they need to know when creating and posting a vlog? What are the rules for advertisement and/or posting about receiving gifts or awards from brands? And what if you use pieces of text, images or music from other authors? Remco Klöters will discuss al the legal do's and dont's around this topic.

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• Updates/ Posted June 24th of 2016

  Plagiarism or just coincidence?

  The British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is accused of copyright infringement. Songwriters Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard - who wrote the song 'Amazing' - claim that Sheeran's song 'Photograph' is similar to 'Amazing' (which is sang by Matt Cardle). According to the songwriters, it is abundantly clear that it was copied.

  
  The similarities would include the following:
  - identical tunes and an identical rhythm (mainly in the refrain);
  - identical lyrics; and:
  - a similar style.

  
  How would a Dutch judge assess such a case? Is there any similarity? Moreover, are the described elements copyright protected?

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• Updates/ Posted June 6th of 2016

  Flexible rules on advertisment and sponsoring

  

  The European Commission is currently working on its Digital Market Strategy. In that context it recently presented its proposal for a new version of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. It is an update that should respond to the current way in which we interact with audiovisual media.

  
  The current Directive applies to commercial and public broadcasting companies. With the new rules it will also apply to providers of VOD-services and online video platforms. Under the Commission's proposal the rules for broadcasters are more flexible, while it imposes more obligations to online video platforms. The Commission claims that the latter should fall within the scope of the Directive. Below you will find a brief summary of the proposal.

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• Updates/ Posted April 1st of 2016

  Erdogan, German humor and satire

  The Greeks, the Romans and even the old Egyptians used satire to criticize pressing issues. The work of Desiderius Erasmus ''Lof der zotheid'' from 1511 shows that The Netherlands has a long tradition using satire. What is the state of affairs in Europe in the year 2016? The German ambassador got summoned in Ankara for a saticial film about Erdogan. Is there any reason for concern?

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• Updates/ Posted November 5th of 2015

  False reviews: who's to blame?

  For Nederlandsmedianieuws.nl Remco Klöters wrote an article about online false reviews. Below you find a short introduction and a link to the full article (in Dutch).

   

  ''False, misleading and inauthentic'' Amazon said about the reviews posted by more than a thousand payed reviewers on its website. After addressing websites in April 2015 for offering fake reviews, Amazon is now focussing on the reviewers themselves. They were sued before a court in Seattle last month.

   

  Who is not confronted with friendly and urgent requests to like the Facebook-page of the local bakery, appreciate a call centre after violently ending the call and to give five stars to your grumpy taxi driver. Nowadays, the importance of likes, reviews and ratings is undisputed.

   

  Unfortunately, with the increasing importance the reliability of reviews also diminishes and more and more publications about unreliable, false reviews appear.

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• Updates/ Posted October 8th of 2015

  European Safe Harbour Decision invalid

  

  The European Court of Justice (''ECJ'') has rendered an important judgment in a case about the transfer and storage of European personal data in the United States. The court ruled that the European Safe Harbour Decision does not provide an adequate level of protection of personal data. Based on this agreement organisations such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Twitter got permission to store data from Europeans in the U.S. In total there are over 5000 organisations transferring personal data based on these decision.

   

  Background: Schrems vs. Facebook
  The ruling is the final judgment in a case between the Austrian student Maximillian Schrems and Facebook. All Facebook subscribers residing in Europe must sign an agreement with Facebook Ireland, an Irish subsidiary of the American Facebook Inc. The data provided by subscribers to Facebook is transferred, in whole or in part, to servers in the U.S., where it is processed. Schrems lodged a complaint with the Irish supervisory authority (the Data Protection Commissioner). According to Schrems the law and practice of the U.S. do not offer sufficient protecion against surveillance by the public authorities of the data transferred to the country. He aims at the revelations by Edward Snowden in 2013 concerning the activities of the U.S. intelligence services and in particular the National Security Agency (''NSA'').

   

  The Irish authority rejected the complaint on the ground that in a decision of the European Commission (''EC'') in 2000 considered that, under the 'safe harbour' scheme, the U.S. ensures an adequate level of protection of the personal data transferred. Scherms brought the case before the High Court of Ireland, that referred the case to the ECJ.

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• Updates/ Posted August 12th of 2015

  Contract Check: your contracts up-to-date

  

  On 1 July 2015 the new copyright contract rules went into force. As mentioned in our latest update the amendments in the Dutch Copyright Act have consequences for makers and publishers of copyright works. The new rules are therefore important for the contract practice of all media sectors. Are your contracts already up-to-date?

   

  The team of Van Kaam advocaten offers you the opportunity for a Contract Check for both existing and new contracts and/or terms and conditions regarding exploitation, licensing and/or publishing of copyright works.

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• Updates/ Posted June 23th of 2015

  Liability of an Estonian newswebsite

  

  For Nederlandsmedianieuws.nl Remco Klöters wrote an article about the liability of newswebsites for readers' comments. Below you find a short introduction and a link to the full article (in Dutch).

   

  bloody shitheads... (...) sick jew! / go and drown yourself / (...) assholes fck / Lynching, to warn the other [islanders] and would-be men.

   

  This is a selection of offensive, but not quite unusual readers’ comments from the Delfi website (www.delfi.ee), a commercial Estonian newsportal comparable to the Dutch Nu.nl.
  
  Delfi publishes up to 330 articles a day which receive approximately 10.000 (!) readers’ comments daily, the majority posted under pseudonyms.

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• Updates/ Posted May 28th of 2015

  Cookie wall returns

  

  The Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) actively started enforcing the new cookie provisions legal framework. A number of websites re-installed their cookie wall after receiving a letter from the ACM, according to reports by Geen Stijl and Tweakers.net (Dutch publishing company De Persgroep). It is (not yet) known which other specific websites did also receive a similar notice of the ACM.

   

  Background

  In 2012 and 2013 website owners started to use cookie walls to meet the applicable regulations which stipulated that the user must explicitly give its consent for the use of cookies. The walls were removed after a public letter of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs in which it emphasized that it was unnecessary to explicitly request for permission, a simple cookie notification would suffice. Now these same websites act in conflict with the law, according to the ACM.

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• Updates/ Posted April 2 of 2015

  Update Google right to be forgotten

  

  For Nederlandsmedianieuws.nl Remco Klöters wrote an article about the right to be forgotten. Find a short introduction and a link to the full article (in Dutch) below.

   

  Almost a year since the European Court of Justice ordered Google to guarantee the ‘right to be forgotten’, it is time for an update. I already addressed this matter last year. Is it easy to successfully do such a Google-request? And if it fails, is the Dutch court willing to interfere and uphold the law? On March 31^st the Dutch Court of Appeal gave its first judgment in this matter.

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• Updates/ Posted March 12th of 2015

  New cookie provisions in force

  

  The new cookie provisions entered into force with the official publication in the Official State Journal on the 10^th of March. The new provisions are designed to solve the ongoing problems and nuisances caused by the previous cookie rules (in force since 2012). Internet users are still redundantly confronted by pop-ups, banners and cookie-walls while their privacy is not or barely at stake.

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• Updates/ Posted January 22nd of 2015

  Second-hand e-book market must ban illegal content

  

  In July 2014 Nils Winthagen wrote an article for Emerce.nl about copyright and the second-hand e-book market. He wrote the article based on the fact the Dutch Publishers Association (NUV) had started proceedings against Tom Kabinet. In the summary proceedings the court ruled in favour of Tom Kabinet. This judgement is successfully apealed by the NUV. Tom Kabinet cannot provide services for reselling illegal e-books.

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• Updates/ Posted January 6th of 2015

  Works of renowned artists in the public domain

  

  The start of the new year has also opened a door to the public domain for works of Mondrian, Kandinsky, Munch and Nussbaum. In Europe works are protected under copyright for the duration of 70 years after the death of the author (post mortem auctoris). In 2014 it was exactly 70 years ago since the aforementioned artists passed away. That is why their copyright has lapsed in the EU on January 1. The works can therefore be freely published.

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• Updates/ Posted December 15th of 2014

  Facebooks 'new' terms of use

  

  Every Facebook user has received a message from Facebook that its terms of use will change on 1 January 2015. After this date. everyone who uses Facebook agrees with the changes made . The message led to a counter movement by which users posted messages on their time-line in which they indicated not to agree with the new terms and conditions. The question however is whether there is any merit in such actions. Pursuant to the terms of use Facebook claims you already agreed by using Facebook. What is the hidden agenda of Facebook? Below a brief explanation.

   

  `new´ terms of use already in use
  Facebook claims it altered its terms of use, but the actual terms and conditions were already applicable for a while. The terms of use are not new at all. Facebook has only redrafted the conditions and splitted them in different documents. Besides that Facebook is going to collect and exchange even more of our data. Below you will find some of the most important conditions:

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• Updates/ Posted December 2 of 2014

  Google removes search tool regarding Torrent websites

  

  Recently Google has introduced a new search tool that allows users to search directly within a website. (see picture) The search tool formerly also displayed search results containing torrent sites like The Pirate Bay, Isohunt.to and Torrentz.eu. Google has now removed the search tool in relation to results displaying the torrent sites.  Google did not (yet) explain why the search tool has been removed. The reasons for the removal are therefore not officially known. The torrent sites themselves can still be found through Google.

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• Updates/ Posted December 3rd of 2014

  Google degoogled!

  

  For Nederlandsmedianieuws.nl Remco Klöters wrote an article about Google and the right to be forgotten. Below is a brief introduction and a link to the full article (in Dutch).

   

  On May 13, 2014 the European Court of Jusitice ruled a ground-breaking judgement regarding the obligations for search engine operators.

   

  According to the Court, people have the right to 'be forgotten' and should therefore have the possibility to object to publications of incorrect or (no longer) relevant information that is made available to the public by search engines like Google. This was a surprise, since year it seemed that such a right did not exist.

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• Updates/ Posted December 3rd of 2014

  A principled obligation to block copyright infringing websites

  

  For the Dutch Magazine for Internet Law Hanneke van Lith was co-author on an annotation about the judgement of the Court of Justice regarding the obligation to block copyright infringing websites. Below is a short introduction and a link to the full article (in Dutch).

   

  New technologies make it possible to digitally exchange information faster, more often and in bigger quantities. Communication is key! On the other hand these technologies also allow more abuse. This particularly concerns the violation of copyright on the internet, for example through P2P webistes or so-called torrentwebsites. Therefore for a while right holders have been in a constant battle against websites that make their works available to internet users without their permission.

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