International and European Copyright Law and Policy

This module sheds light on how international and EU legislative instruments seek to ensure an effective and uniform recognition, enforcement and exploitation of copyright and related rights, increasingly by harmonizing national laws on copyright. The module will place particular emphasis on technological aspects of copyright and of its enforcement. 

Lectures will consider essential aspects of copyright protection, such as:

(i) history and justifications of copyright; relevant international, EU, and national, copyright frameworks; and important principles;

(ii) the subsistence of copyright; the requirement of 'originality'; the concept of ‘authorship’; and the ‘idea/expression’ dichotomy;

(iii) the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI);

(iv) copyright’s term of protection, and persisting issues regarding its uniformity throughout the EU;

(v) the scope and character of economic and moral rights, including rightsholders' exclusive rights of reproduction, communication to the public, distribution, adaptation, and so on;

(vi) copyright exceptions and user rights;

(vii) enforcement, immunities, and remedies, including damages and injunctions, in particular against serial uploaders and downloaders;

(viii) online copyright enforcement measures and their constitutional limits, in particular Article 17 of the EU ‘Digital Single Market’ Directive (2019/790); and

(ix) licencing, levies, and collective management of copyright and related rights in the Internet age.

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

• demonstrate a thorough understanding of international coyright instruments (especially those of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)), of the EU copyright acquis, and of how this interacts with national copyright laws;
• analyze the requirements for obtaining copyright protection;
• analyze the scope of copyright protection, of relevant exceptions, and of the enforcement of copyright - at international, EU and national level;
• demonstrate, in particular, a thorough understanding of the key legislative measures adopted by the EU, and of the key decisions of EU and national courts elaborating on these measures; and
• be able to participate in debates about the modernisation and reform of WTO treaties and of the EU acquis, in particular for reasons of innovation and technological neutrality.

Assessment:

Essay (85%) and Continuous Assessment (15%)

The Essay (85%) must be:

• no more than 6,000 words (INCLUDING footnotes),
• settled on or before the class in week 6 of term,
• referenced according to the OSCOLA Ireland system of legal citation, and
• submitted, ONLY via Turnitin on Blackboard, by 4:00pm on the Friday of the week after the end of teaching term.

The Continuous Assessment (15%) will consist of marks for:

• ongoing participation in the module (5%), and
• participation in one of the in-class moots in the module (10%) - topics are likely to include AI, copyright exceptions, and authors' remuneration.

There will be more details about these assessments on Blackboard.

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