CJEU case law and the interplay with policy and legislative action in the Digital Single Market

Abstract

Abstract This final chapter tackles recent EU copyright reform initiatives. It focuses in particular on the history of some of the provisions of the DSM Directive to show that the very choice to intervene in respect of certain issues (e.g. what is now regulated by Articles 8(1), 12, and 16 of the DSM Directive, i.e. licences for the use of out-of-commerce works, collective licences with an extended effect, and remuneration for private copying, respectively) was prompted by specific judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In other areas—including the exclusions of acts of hyperlinking and very short extracts from the scope of protection of the press publishers’ related right in Article 15, the notion of ‘communication to the public’ and the obligations of online content-sharing service providers (OCSSPs) in Article 17, and the ‘codification’ of CJEU case law on originality in Article 14—the legislative history and resulting provisions may be only understood if read in the light of the jurisprudential evolution undertaken over time, including prior to the adoption of the DSM Directive, at the CJEU level.