EU copyright infringement: overview of rights, defences and leading CJEU decisions (reproduction, distribution/exhaustion, communication to the public, platform liability, rental/lending, software, databases, AI/TDM)
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Practice notes
Copyright describes a bundle of rights granted to makers of creative output, covering:
- literary, dramatic, artistic and musical works
- broadcasts and databases
- sound recordings
- typographical arrangements
Alongside the economic rights initially vested in the creator or author, the term can also encompass extra, personal entitlements for authors and performers—often called moral rights or neighbouring rights. Moral rights are not generally harmonised at EU level and alleged infringements of them are not specifically considered in this Practice Note. For guidance on the subsistence of copyright within the EU, see Practice Note: EU—Copyright subsistence.
EU copyright legislation
Copyright is not yet comprehensively harmonised across the EU. Nevertheless, over the past three decades a framework of directives and regulations on copyright and neighbouring rights has developed, supplemented by a substantial body of case law interpreting that legislation. The outcome is a high—though not absolute—degree of harmonisation that has grown over time. Copyright remains a national intellectual property right, to be enforced before national courts. The corpus of EU copyright case law has emerged from questions referred by national courts to the Court of Justice of the European Union...
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Web page updated on 21/05/2026
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