Re: European Directive on Copyright Law (91/EC/250) wrt open source

[batist <batist@kotnet.org>]

On Sat, 2004-05-08 at 17:05, Arnoud Engelfriet wrote:
> Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> >  ... regarding EU directives: are individual governments _allowed_ to
> >  go beyond the bounds of the EU directives (in the implementation into
> >  law)?

As those directives are most often some sort of compromise between the
member states, the member states are allowed to go beyond the directive
(but always have to adhere to the minimum requirements of the
directive). As a clear example: it is possible, after some liability
directive, to implement a higher cap in national law than the cap in the
directive.

> They must change their law to conform to the directive. But
> there's no instance that can intervene if they're wrong.

Well, there is. Kind of. The court of justice in Luxembourg will fine a
state not in conformity with the directive. Problem is that the court
only answers to prejudicial questions, so they can only be heared if one
starts a case in national law (so we already are in court), and it only
applies then to that particular court in that particular case. Most
often other judges will follow the ruling of the EU court, but they do
not have to. So you're not much further, and for practical applications,
one should remain on the safe side and assume that no instance can
intervene when the governement is wrong.

Batist

ps english legalese may be worded in the wrong terminology, as it is not
my native language.

-- 
It isn't an optical illusion. It just looks like one.