Full harmonization of the copyright laws of EU Member States has long been a holy grail for copyright lawyers, but with the reality thus far being only limited harmonization resulting from ad-hoc legislative interventions, there are serious questions over the feasibility and indeed desirability of this goal. Notwithstanding, as this book makes eloquently clear, whilst legislative initiatives have been limited, the CJEU has been acting proactively, establishing through its decisional practice the de facto harmonization of an important principle of copyright: the originality requirement. Through an assessment of the originality requirement, this work guides the reader in interpreting judicial decisions which are of fundamental importance to current and future understanding of EU copyright. The book’s holistic approach and methodology takes in analysis of; recent decisions of the CJEU in light of broader EU copyright reform debate; the implications of CJEU case law in Member States which have traditionally adopted different approaches to copyright (eg the UK); the originality requirement in EU, UK and continental Member States; recent UK decisions from an EU perspective; and academic copyright reform projects, both in Europe and the US. Originality in EU Copyright will appeal to academics, policymakers and EU officers, students, practitioners and in-house counsels.

-- Foreword Table of Cases (in Chronological Order) -- Table of EU/EC/EEC Legislation (in Chronological Order) -- Table of EU/EC Policy Documents (in Chronological Order) -- Introduction -- 1. The Challenges of EU Copyright: ‘United in Diversity’ - Does it Work? -- 2. Originality as a Policy Tool: Shaping the Breadth of Protection -- 3. Originality in a Work, or a Work of Originality: The Effects of the Infopaq Decision -- 4. The CJEU Goes Ahead: The Decisions in Murphy, Painer, Football Dataco and SAS -- 5. Challenging the UK Understanding of Copyright: Originality and Subject-matter Categorization at the Forefront of the Debate -- 6. The Future of Copyright at the EU Level: The Shape of Harmonization -- Bibliography -- Index

Published version of EUI PhD thesis, 2012