Enforcement of Copyright

Abstract

This chapter considers enforcement, showing how the legislative framework alone has limited relevance. What has been key to the creation an EU enforcement framework has been—instead—the role of the Court, which is particularly visible in respect of injunctions against intermediaries, costs and damages, and certain private international law aspects (applicable law and, more significantly, jurisdiction). The analysis focuses, first, on CJEU case law in relation to Article 8(3) of the InfoSoc Directive, and extracts a number of key standards for intermediary injunctions (including blocking and filtering, and general monitoring obligations) under EU law. Then, attention shifts to the technical aspects of copyright enforcement initiatives, notably costs and damages. Finally, the chapter considers online copyright infringement cases, with a special emphasis on determination of applicable law and jurisdictions in cases with an international dimension. Again, reliance on certain of the standards discussed in Chapter 2 has been decisive in shaping the resulting framework.