ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the legal framework of ‘spoilers’, defined here as the revelation of elements of a plot of a piece of fiction that the public is not yet aware of. The author distinguishes between ‘relative spoilers’, ie, information about an already published work of mind, and ‘absolute spoilers’, ie, information about a non-published work of mind. In the first part, it is argued that relative spoilers do not raise any liability as the person who publishes the spoiler is protected by freedom of expression. However, the question of moderation touches on sensitive legal issues related to the need to enforce a stronger horizontal effect of freedom of expression on the Internet. The second part focuses on the ‘absolute spoiler’ and considers it as a form of information theft that is nowadays regulated by the Directive on trade secrets. In the third and last part of the chapter, the author shows how, alternatively, copyright law could be of use in guarding against both relative and absolute spoilers.
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Philippe Jougleux, Spoilers Under European Internet Law in EU Internet Law in the Digital Era: Regulation and Enforcement (Tatiana-Eleni Synodinou, Philippe Jougleux, Christiana Markou and Thalia Prastitou eds) (Springer, November 2019).
First posted 2019-10-25 06:30:23
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