Why a reform of hosting providers' safe harbour is unnecessary under EU copyright law

In the context of its Digital Single Market Strategy (DSMS) the EU Commission is currently engaged in a discussion of whether the liability principles and rules envisaged by Directive 2000/31 (the Ecommerce Directive) should be amended. One of the principal concerns in relation to unlicensed online intermediaries (notably unlicensed hosting providers) is that these have been increasingly said to invoke the safe harbour immunities in the Ecommerce Directive lacking the conditions for their application. This alleged abuse has led to a distortion of the online marketplace and the resulting ‘value gap’ indicated by some rightholders.This contribution discusses a recent proposal advanced in France which asks to remove the safe harbour protection pursuant to Article 14 of the Ecommerce Directive for hosting providers that give access to copyright works.After addressing some of the points raised by the French proposal, this work concludes that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has not erred in its interpretation of relevant provisions of the Ecommerce Directive and that – in practice – the removal of safe harbour protection for passive hosting providers that give access to copyright works would not provide any distinct advantages to rightholders. Overall, the current framework already provides an adequate degree of protection: what is required is a rigorous application by national courts of the principles enshrined in the Ecommerce Directive, as interpreted by the CJEU

International Jurisdiction in online EU trade mark infringement cases: where is the place of infringement located?

Article 97 of the European Union Trade Mark Regulation (EUTMR) sets a number of grounds to determine international jurisdiction in cases of alleged infringement of a European Union trade mark (EUTM).Besides the possibility to bring proceedings before the courts of the Member State of domicile/establishment of the defendant/claimant and where the European Union Intellectual Property Office (formerly the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market) has its seat, Article 97(5) EUTMR also allows for proceedings to be brought “in the courts of the Member State in which the act of infringement has been committed or threatened”.Lacking specific guidance from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), this contribution asks how Article 97(5) EUTMR is to be interpreted in relation to proceedings for alleged infringement of a EUTM over the internet.It concludes that, in light of preceding jurisprudence, the CJEU may hold that this is place where the activation of the process for the technical display of infringing content on a certain website takes place. While in the majority of instances this is likely to be the same place where the defendant is domiciled/established, this may not always be the cas

Income Elasticity of Child Labor: Do Cash Transfers have an Impact on the Poorest Children?

AbstractThe possible nonlinearity of the income elasticity of child labor has been at the center of the debate regarding both its causes and the policy instruments to address it. We contribute to this debate providing theoretical and empirical novel results. From a theoretical point of view, for any given transfer size, there is a critical level of household income below which an increase in income has no impact on child labor and education. We estimate the causal impact of an increase in income on child labor and education exploiting the random allocation of the Child Grant Programme, an unconditional cash transfer (CT), in Lesotho. We show that the poorest households do not increase investment in children's human capital, while relatively less poor households reduce child labor and increase education. In policy terms, the results indicate that CTs might not be always effective to support the investment in children's human capital of the poorest households. Beside the integration with other measures, making the amount of transfer depends of the level of deprivation of the household, might improve CT effectiveness

It’s not only what you say but “how” you say it: linguistic styles and ICOs success

Digital technologies have created new alternative sources of entrepreneurial finance that create significant opportunities for start-ups and entrepreneurs. Among them, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have attracted significant attention from the start-up community and from investors. Despite all the hype around ICOs and the growing number of new token offerings being launched on a daily basis, little is known about the characteristics of successful ICOs. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by exploring whether and how the linguistic styles adopted in the white paper affects the success of an ICO as measured by the actual amount raised by the offering. Our results are based on a primary dataset of 131 ICOs completed between June 2017 and October 2018. Our results suggest that the use of precise language is positively associated with the amount funded while the use of a concrete language and more numerical terms is negatively associated with the amount funded. This study contributes to the growing literature on ICOs by providing novel insights into the role of the communication strategy adopted by token issuers.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The molecular sources of reactive oxygen species in hypertension.

In both animal models and humans, increased blood pressure has been associated with oxidative stress in the vasculature, i.e. an excessive endothelial production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which may be both a cause and an effect of hypertension. In addition to NADPH oxidase, the best characterized source of ROS, several other enzymes may contribute to ROS generation, including nitric oxide synthase, lipoxygenases, cyclo-oxygenases, xanthine oxidase and cytochrome P450 enzymes. It has been suggested that also mitochondria could be considered a major source of ROS: in situations of metabolic perturbation, increased mitochondrial ROS generation might trigger endothelial dysfunction, possibly contributing to the development of hypertension. However, the use of antioxidants in the clinical setting induced only limited effects on human hypertension or cardiovascular endpoints. More clinical studies are needed to fully elucidate this so called "oxidative paradox" of hypertension

L’esclusiva legale della SIAE, tra diritto interno ed europeo

Analisi giuridica del monopolio legale della SIAE, in prospettiva comparat