Article archive
19/01/2014 21:21
New book published: "Media Policies Revisited" by E. Psychogiopoulou
With a contribution by Bart Van Besien and Pierre-François Docquir "Changing Conditions of Competition for Public Service and Commercial Media in Belgium: Implications for Media Independence".
For more information, see the website of Palgrave MacMillan.
Author: Bart Van Besien
Finnian &...
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17/12/2013 15:24
Review of the EU’s proposal for a new data protection regulation
Under E.U. law, personal data can only be gathered under strict conditions. Those who collect and manage personal information are bound by a duty to protect it from misuse and to respect certain rights of the data owners.
The EU Data Protection Directive of 1995 (Directive 95/46/EC)...
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17/12/2013 15:19
Review of the EU’s data protection regulation proposal
Under E.U. law, personal data can only be gathered under strict conditions. Those who collect and manage personal information are bound by a duty to protect it from misuse and to respect certain rights of the data owners.
The EU Data Protection Directive of 1995 (Directive 95/46/EC)...
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16/12/2013 20:21
EU Commission launches public consultation on copyright reform
The European Commission recently launched a public consultation to gather public input on the review of EU copyright rules (in particular, concerning the need to modernize copyright). All stakeholders may contribute to the consultation, including consumers, authors, performers, publishers,...
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13/12/2013 11:58
Domain name disputes in Belgium: how to claim back a “.be” domain name?
In this article, I summarize the different ways to recover a Belgian “.be” internet domain name.
In Belgium, there are two ways to recover a domain name that is registered by someone else. The first way is the “alternative dispute resolution” (“ADR”) service provided by Cepani[1] (for .be...
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15/11/2013 02:11
US court finds that Google Books does not infringe copyright
The District Court's decision of 14 November 2013 in the case of Authors Guild v. Google is a major victory for Google, and a serious blow for the Authors Guild and other opponents of Google Books.
In 2004, Google announced agreements with several research libraries in the US and...
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30/09/2013 06:57
The Essential Guide to Belgian Copyright Law
Economic rights and moral rights
The Belgian Copyright Act makes a basic distinction between moral rights and economic rights. Moral rights are an author's right to disclose his or her work ("divulgation right"), the right to claim or refuse authorship of the work ("paternity right"),...
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20/09/2013 18:13
Facebook 'Like' is protected free speech under First Amendment says US court
The US Fourth Circuit Court of appeals ruled last Wednesday that a 'like' on Facebook is protected as "free speech" under the US First Amendment.
Mr. Carter, a former deputy sheriff, claimed that he was fired for 'liking' the Facebook page of a man who was running against his boss for the...
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17/09/2013 06:47
Copiepresse versus Google: a legal analysis of news aggregation and copyright infringement under Belgian law
A couple of days ago, my article on "Copiepresse versus Google" was published in the Belgian law review 'Revue du Droit des Technologies de l'Information' (R.D.T.I.). My article examines the legal dispute between Copiepresse[1] and Google before the Belgian courts. This dispute focused on the...
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27/08/2013 22:49
The essential guide to Belgian media law
The basic rules on freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Belgium are enshrined in the Belgian Constitution. The majority of Belgian media-related legislation concerns audiovisual media, rather than the written press or the internet. The rules on audiovisual media are passed by the...
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Contact
Bart Van BesienFinnian & Columba
K. De Deckerstraat 20A
2800 Mechelen, Belgium
+32 486 626 355
+32 15 29 42 57
bart@finnian.be