This book is an updated English language version of a highly regarded commentary published in German by Springer in 2001, covering all of the EU Directives on copyright law and related rights, with article-by-article analysis of the provisions, as well as the relevant background of general EC law. The analysis of each article examines its antecedents in national laws, the negotiating history, the meaning and purpose of the wording, interpretive rulings by the European Court of Justice, and key issues relating to implentation of the regulations and rulings by the Member States, concentrating in particular on the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Hungary. The revised English edition takes into account the many significant developments which have taken place since the German edition was published, including the Software Directive, the Database Directive, the revised text of the Product Piracy Regulation, the Enforcement Directive and the review of the EC legal framework.

Author Biography

Michel M Walter is a Honorary Professor at the Vienna University Law School and Visiting Professor at the Danube University Krems, specializing in intellectual property rights. He teaches in a number of universities and master programs. He was a member of the EC group of Copyright experts Brussels and of the Austrian Copyright Arbitration Board. Michel M Walter is a practising lawyer in Vienna, president of the Austrian Group of ALAI and co-editor of the journal Medien und Recht International (Media and Law International). He is a well known authority in the field of intellectual property rights and author of numerous articles and books in particular on national, European and International copyright and related rights as well as private international law. Dr. Silke von Lewinski is a head of department who specializes in international and European copyright law at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Munich. She has been an expert consulting the European Commission, eg on the EC Rental Rights Directive, and the WIPO Diplomatic Conference 1996, which led to the WCT and WPPT (preparation, and member of the EC delegation). She has been the chief legal expert consulting the governments of Eastern and Central European and former Soviet countries on their copyright legislation in the framework of the initial EC's TA programs from 1995 and works under subsequent programs, including in Asia. In addition, Dr. von Lewinski is teaching at different universities and institutions worldwide, such as at Franklin Pierce Law Center (USA) and at the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center.