CIPIL Seminar: 'Hyperlinking and website blocking injunctions: recent copyright case law from the European and English courts' - Jaani Riordan

Location: G24, Faculty of Law

Dr Jaani Riordan will speak on the topic "Hyperlinking and website blocking injunctions: recent copyright case law from the European and English courts".

This talk will critically evaluate recent case law concerning internet copyright infringement and online intermediaries. Its focus will be the decision of the CJEU in GS Media BV v Sanoma Media Netherlands BV (Case C-160/15, EU:C:2016:644), which concerns the liability of website operators who post hyperlinks to infringing content. It will be argued that GS Media represents an incoherent and unprincipled approach to the scope of the ‘communication to the public’ right, and is unworkable in practice. Secondly, this lecture will consider the recent decision of the Court of Appeal in Cartier International AG v British Sky Broadcasting Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 658, which held that internet service providers and other intermediaries owe duties derived from EU law to take reasonable and proportionate steps to block their subscribers from accessing infringing content upon request. Despite the Court of Appeal’s judgment, serious questions persist about the correct basis and scope of this jurisdiction and its limits, including: (i) the relationship between injunctive relief and monetary liability; (ii) who should bear the cost of injunctive relief; and (iii) what alternatives the applicant should be required to explore before pursuing an intermediary.

About the speaker: Jaani is a barrister at the leading intellectual property chambers, 8 New Square, where he practices in all fields of IP and technology litigation, with particular expertise in disputes involving the internet and computer technology. Jaani appears regularly in the High Court and Court of Appeal, and advises clients across the telecommunications, internet, broadcasting, media, biotechnology, fashion and creative industries. Before being called to the Bar, Jaani practised as a solicitor at the Australian firm King & Wood Mallesons. He graduated with the top first in law and a degree in computer science from the University of Melbourne. He also holds a doctorate in law from the University of Oxford, where his PhD research examined internet wrongdoing. He was supervised by Roderick Bagshaw at Magdalen College and was a Stipendiary Lecturer in Law at University College. Jaani is the author of The Liability of Internet Intermediaries (2016, Oxford University Press).