Spanish Supreme Court Rules in Favour of Google Search Engine... and a Flexible Reading of Copyright Statutes?

On 3 April 2012, the Spanish Supreme Court issued a major ruling in favour of the Google search engine, including its ‘cache copy’ service: Sentencia n.172/2012, of 3 April 2012, Supreme Court, Civil Chamber.* The importance of this ruling lies not so much in the circumstances of the case (the Supreme Court was clearly disgusted by the claimant’s ‘maximalist’ petitum to shut down the whole operation of the search engine), but rather on the court going beyond the text of the Copyright Act into the general principles of the law and case law, and especially on the reading of the three-step test (in Art. 40bis TRLPI) in a positive sense so as to include all these principles. After accepting that none of the limitations listed in the Spanish Copyright statute (TRLPI) exempted the unauthorized use of fragments of the contents of a personal website through the Google search engine and cache copy service, the Supreme Court concluded against infringement, based on the grounds that the three-step test (in Art. 40bis TRLPI) is to be read not only in a negative manner but also in a positive sense so as to take into account that intellectual property – as any other kind of property – is limited in nature and must endure any ius usus inocui (harmless uses by third parties) and must abide to the general principles of the law, such as good faith and prohibition of an abusive exercise of rights (Art. 7 Spanish Civil Code).The ruling is a major success in favour of a flexible interpretation and application of the copyright statutes, especially in the scenarios raised by new technologies and market agents, and in favour of using the three-step test as a key tool to allow for it.

Google Images German Federal Court Entscheidung vom 29.04.2010, I ZR 69/08 With an English Introduction

The long-awaited verdict by the German Federal Court of Justice towards Google image search has drawn much attention to the problem of copyright infringement by search engines on the Internet. In the past years the question has arose whether the listing itself in a search engine like Google can be an infringement of copyright. The decision is widely seen as one of the most important of the last years. With significant amount of effort, the German Fede- ral Court tried to balance the interests of the right holders and those of the digital reality.

Global Standards: Recent Developments betweend the Poles of Privacy and Cloud Computing

The development of the Internet has made it possible to transfer data ‘around the globe at the click of a mouse’. Especially fresh business models such as cloud computing, the newest driver to illustrate the speed and breadth of the online environment, allow this data to be processed across national borders on a routine basis. A number of factors cause the Internet to blur the lines between public and private space: Firstly, globalization and the outsourcing of economic actors entrain an ever-growing exchange of personal data. Secondly, the security pressure in the name of the legitimate fight against terrorism opens the access to a significant amount of data for an increasing number of public authorities.And finally,the tools of the digital society accompany everyone at each stage of life by leaving permanent individual and borderless traces in both space and time. Therefore, calls from both the public and private sectors for an international legal framework for privacy and data protection have become louder. Companies such as Google and Facebook have also come under continuous pressure from governments and citizens to reform the use of data. Thus, Google was not alone in calling for the creation of ‘global privacystandards’. Efforts are underway to review established privacy foundation documents. There are similar efforts to look at standards in global approaches to privacy and data protection. The last remarkable steps were the Montreux Declaration, in which the privacycommissioners appealed to the United Nations ‘to prepare a binding legal instrument which clearly sets out in detail the rights to data protection and privacy as enforceable human rights’. This appeal was repeated in 2008 at the 30thinternational conference held in Strasbourg, at the 31stconference 2009 in Madrid and in 2010 at the 32ndconference in Jerusalem. In a globalized world, free data flow has become an everyday need. Thus, the aim of global harmonization should be that it doesn’t make any difference for data users or data subjects whether data processing takes place in one or in several countries. Concern has been expressed that data users might seek to avoid privacy controls by moving their operations to countries which have lower standards in their privacy laws or no such laws at all. To control that risk, some countries have implemented special controls into their domestic law. Again, such controls may interfere with the need for free international data flow. A formula has to be found to make sure that privacy at the international level does not prejudice this principle.

Generisches Framework Studi-App

Mit der Idee eines generischen, an vielfältige Hochschulanforderungen anpassbaren Studierenden-App-Frameworks haben sich innerhalb des Arbeitskreises Web der ZKI ca. 30 Hochschulen zu einem Entwicklungsverbund zusammengefunden. Ziel ist es, an den beteiligten Einrichtungen eine umfassende Zusammenstellung aller elektronischen Studienservices zu evaluieren, übergreifende Daten- und Metadatenmodelle für die Beschreibung dieser Dienste zu erstellen und Schnittstellen zu den gängigen Campusmanagementsystemen sowie zu Infrastrukturen der elektronischen Lehre (LMS, Druckdienste, elektronischen Katalogen usw.) zu entwickeln. In einem abschließenden Schritt werden auf dieser Middleware aufsetzende Studienmanagement-Apps für Studierende erstellt, die die verschiedenen Daten- und Kommunikationsströme der standardisierten Dienste und Kommunikationskanäle bündeln und in eine für den Studierenden leicht zu durchschauende, navigationsfreundliche Aufbereitung kanalisiert. Mit der Konzeption eines dezentralen, über eine Vielzahl von Hochschulen verteilten Entwicklungsprojektes unter einer zentralen Projektleitung wird sichergestellt, dass redundante Entwicklungen vermieden, bundesweit standardisierte Serviceangebote angeboten und Wissenstransferprozesse zwischen einer Vielzahl von Hochschulen zur Nutzung mobiler Devices (Smartphones, Tablets und entsprechende Apps) angeregt werden können. Die Unterstützung der Realisierung klarer Schnittstellenspezifikationen zu Campusmanagementsystemen durch deren Anbieter kann durch diese breite Interessensgemeinschaft ebenfalls gestärkt werden. Weiterhin zentraler Planungsinhalt ist ein Angebot für den App-Nutzer zum Aufbau eines datenschutzrechtlich integeren, persönlichen E-Portfolios. Details finden sich im Kapitel Projektziele weiter unten.