I had the privilege to review Brigitte Lindner’s and Ted Shapiro’s edited volume (Copyright in the Information Society – A Guide to National Implementation of the European Directive). My review is going to be published by the JIPLP soon.

The review starts as follows:

While the history of copyright law in the European Union (EU) dates back to the early days of the European Economic Community (EEC), this field of law has gained real significance only after legislation started being enacted at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. The first vertical directives of the EEC first and then the EC and the EU focused only on specific copyright issues (computer programs; broadcasting through satellite and cable services; certain economic rights of copyright and related right holders; term of protection; and database). The whole idea of ‘pan-European copyright law’ was missing until the creation of the horizontal InfoSoc Directive in 2001. While this piece of legislation has led to intense debates, eg with respect to its terminology, effectiveness and flexibilities, no one can deny that it has significantly contributed to a more uniform copyright system within the EU.

You can read the full review here (in its pre-publication form).