Iscrpljenje autorskog prava na digitalnim primercima dela: evropski pristup
Dušan V. Popović · 2020
For decades, the concept of exhaustion of copyright remains largely outside of harmonisation efforts in international intellectual property law. Leaving the international aspects aside, the paper analyses the exhaustion of copyright on digital copies of works, within the framework of the European Union law. The motive for writing this paper should be found in the recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case Tom Kabinet. In this decision, the CJEU examines the digital exhaution of copyright (more precisely, the right of communication to the public) in case of e-books. The author compares the conclusions reached by the Court in the case Tom Kabinet with those reached in the earlier case UsedSoft. The latter decision asesses the exhaustion of copyright (more precisely, the right to distribute the copies of a work) with respect to downloaded software. The two CJEU decisions interpret the provisions of different sources of EU law: in Tom Kabinet the Court analyses the provisions of the InfoSoc Directive, while in UsedSoft the Court interprets the provisions of the Software Directive. In the final part, the author discusses the consistency of the current EU framework for the digital exhaustion of copyright, in light of the principle of legal certainty.