Something Stolen, Something New, Something Copyright Protected in the EU – A Study of Swedish Compatibility with EU Copyright Law Following the Pelham Judgment
(2022) LAGM01 20221Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- Creativity is at the very essence of being human. For as long as we have created, we have done so on the basis of what we have seen previously. This was true for the classical composers of the enlightenment, for the rock stars of the 70s and for the early DJs of Jamaica and New York who, when technology allowed it, started to extract samples from previous music and making their owns tracks with it – thus giving birth to the age of sampling.
Up until the European Court of Justice adjudicated the Pelham case, it was uncertain whether small samples were at all considered an infringement, based on EU law. Now we know that, according to the Court’s interpretation of the Infosoc Directive, even a two second sample is enough to constitute a... (More) - Creativity is at the very essence of being human. For as long as we have created, we have done so on the basis of what we have seen previously. This was true for the classical composers of the enlightenment, for the rock stars of the 70s and for the early DJs of Jamaica and New York who, when technology allowed it, started to extract samples from previous music and making their owns tracks with it – thus giving birth to the age of sampling.
Up until the European Court of Justice adjudicated the Pelham case, it was uncertain whether small samples were at all considered an infringement, based on EU law. Now we know that, according to the Court’s interpretation of the Infosoc Directive, even a two second sample is enough to constitute a reproduction, at least in part. While the case is yet to be tried on its merits in the German court system, the EU judgment provides some welcome insights into the copyright implications of sampling, in a time where the barriers to sampling are getting lower by the day and the practice is only growing in popularity.
With fresh clarity on the EU-side of copyright law, the laws of the member states might need to be looked over. The Swedish system is no exception, with legal features that seem very much to deviate from the EU framework. Future cases will have to reveal the facts but, as this essay will show, there are now reasons to question the compatibility of Swedish copyright law with EU law. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Kreativiteten är inneboende och speciell för människan. Så länge vi har skapat har vi gjort det utifrån vad tidigare tagit del av. Så var fallet för de klassiska kompositörerna från upplysningstiden, för rockstjärnorna på 70-talet och för den tidiga generationen DJ:s från Jamaica och New York som, så fort tekniken tillät det, började sampla tidigare musik och mixa sina egna versioner med dem, vilket blev starten på samplingens tidsålder.
Fram tills EU-domstolen avgjorde Pelham-målet var det osäkert om mindre samples överhuvudtaget ansågs utgöra intrång, baserat på EU-rätten. Nu vet vi att, enligt domstolens tolkning av Infosoc-direktivet, räcker till och med en sample på två sekunder för att utgöra ett mångfaldigande, åtminstone delvis.... (More) - Kreativiteten är inneboende och speciell för människan. Så länge vi har skapat har vi gjort det utifrån vad tidigare tagit del av. Så var fallet för de klassiska kompositörerna från upplysningstiden, för rockstjärnorna på 70-talet och för den tidiga generationen DJ:s från Jamaica och New York som, så fort tekniken tillät det, började sampla tidigare musik och mixa sina egna versioner med dem, vilket blev starten på samplingens tidsålder.
Fram tills EU-domstolen avgjorde Pelham-målet var det osäkert om mindre samples överhuvudtaget ansågs utgöra intrång, baserat på EU-rätten. Nu vet vi att, enligt domstolens tolkning av Infosoc-direktivet, räcker till och med en sample på två sekunder för att utgöra ett mångfaldigande, åtminstone delvis. Även om målet ännu inte är färdigprövat av de tyska domstolarna, ger EU-domen några välkomna insikter om de upphovsrättsliga konsekvenserna av sampling, i en tid där tröskeln för att ägna sig åt sampling minskar för varje dag och populariteten av det ökar.
Med ny klarhet på EU-sidan av upphovsrätten kan medlemsstaternas lagar behöva ses över. Det svenska systemet är inget undantag, med rättsliga drag som i hög grad verkar avvika från EU:s ramverk. Framtida praxis får visa utslaget men, som denna uppsats kommer att visa, finns det nu skäl att ifrågasätta svensk upphovsrättsrätts förenlighet med EU-rätten. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9082469
- author
- Karlsson, Samuel LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- LAGM01 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- copyright, sampling, sample, hip hop, hip-hop, music, law, musikjuridik, upphovsrätt, pelham
- language
- English
- id
- 9082469
- date added to LUP
- 2022-06-27 12:54:30
- date last changed
- 2022-06-27 12:54:30
@misc{9082469,
abstract = {{Creativity is at the very essence of being human. For as long as we have created, we have done so on the basis of what we have seen previously. This was true for the classical composers of the enlightenment, for the rock stars of the 70s and for the early DJs of Jamaica and New York who, when technology allowed it, started to extract samples from previous music and making their owns tracks with it – thus giving birth to the age of sampling.
Up until the European Court of Justice adjudicated the Pelham case, it was uncertain whether small samples were at all considered an infringement, based on EU law. Now we know that, according to the Court’s interpretation of the Infosoc Directive, even a two second sample is enough to constitute a reproduction, at least in part. While the case is yet to be tried on its merits in the German court system, the EU judgment provides some welcome insights into the copyright implications of sampling, in a time where the barriers to sampling are getting lower by the day and the practice is only growing in popularity.
With fresh clarity on the EU-side of copyright law, the laws of the member states might need to be looked over. The Swedish system is no exception, with legal features that seem very much to deviate from the EU framework. Future cases will have to reveal the facts but, as this essay will show, there are now reasons to question the compatibility of Swedish copyright law with EU law.}},
author = {{Karlsson, Samuel}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Something Stolen, Something New, Something Copyright Protected in the EU – A Study of Swedish Compatibility with EU Copyright Law Following the Pelham Judgment}},
year = {{2022}},
}