Copyright Law: In his Opinion on resale of e-books, First Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union cited paper by Sant’Anna School Law Professor

Is it legal to resell second-hand copyrighted e-books or digital goods you have legitimately purchased in the same way we sell or buy material items? According to Caterina Sganga, Professor of Comparative Private Law at Sant’Anna School Dirpolis Institute, the answer is yes. The plea of applying the exhaustion doctrine to intangible copies of copyrighted artistic works has been discussed by Caterina Sganga in her paper “A Plea for Digital Exhaustion in EU Copyright Law”, published in open access JIPITEC - Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and Electronic Commerce Law, here available to download.

Two Dutch associations, Nederlands Uitgeversverbond (‘NUV’) and Groep Algemene Uitgevers (‘GAU’), brought an action against e-book seller Tom Kabinet for alleged infringement of copyright. On September 10, 2019, Maciej Szpunar, First Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union, giving his advice to the Court on the case between Tom Kabinet and publishers' unions, mentioned the study conducted by Sganga at Sant’Anna School. By enhancing the School academic reputation achievement, the Advocate General mentioned several arguments on the resale of e-books.

Although the Advocate General’s opinion is not binding on the Court of Justice of the European Union, the judges work to ensure the correct interpretation and application of Union law in the EU.

The EU Court of Justice is expected to reach conclusions in its upcoming judgment and potentially adopt the opinion to find the right balance between the competing interests of rights holders, third parties, and the public at the EU level.