18 March 2025
Anonymity and Surveillance, Creativity and Copyright
The emergence of digital networks over the past decades has presented a problem for copyright exploiters. Thus, they resorted to strategic enforcement targeting individual users. However, the users would often remain anonymous due to the lack of access to traffic data revealing their identity. But the decision in La Quadrature du Net II – permitting retention and disclosure of traffic data for minor offences – has the adverse effect: it incentivises enforcement strategies targeting users and requiring platforms to hand over such data. Continue reading >>
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27 November 2024
Prioritising Member States Over Citizens
The classic story about the right to privacy and data protection in the EU is one of a high level of protection. Yet, this original rosy image is increasingly fading away, most visibly in the La Quadrature du Net litigation, which is a continuation of two dynamics. First, the Court is still cleaning up the residual mess that lingers on from the now annulled Data Retention Directive. Second, in so doing, it is incrementally allowing the Member States indiscriminately retain personal data. Hence, the Court is carving out space for Member States’ preferences to the detriment of the protection of the individual. Continue reading >>
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