ABSTRACT
This article assesses the current European regulatory landscape for enforcing online copyright at the user level, in the post-GDPR context. It will assess this landscape in two respects. In the first, it will consider the Court of Justice’s rulings in Mircom v Telenet (2021) and La Quadrature du Net (2020) to determine that the collection, retention and disclosure of internet user personal data is not only in conformity with, but necessary to give effect to, European law for enforcing online copyright. In the second, it will consider the impact of the ruling in Bastei Lübbe v Michael Strotzer (2018) and the evidentiary value of such data relative to the demands of giving effect to European law. It will argue that in light of these contemporary cases, it is doubtful that the Court’s position in Promusicae (2008) that Member States retain a discretion in this area on whether to legislate to allow for data retention and disclosure, remains tenable.
O’Sullivan, Kevin, Online Copyright and the GDPR: Assessing the European Regulatory Landscape for Enforcing Copyright at the User Level (Pre-Print) (October 19, 2022), European Intellectual Property Review, 2022, volume 44(11), 688-696.
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