Curiosity defines us. That is how we maintain a well-founded perspective on the matter.
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When is a DPIA required?
A DPIA is required where processing personal data is likely to result in a high risk to the data subjects. You carry out the assessment before the processing begins, not after the fact. That last point is the misunderstanding we come across most often. A DPIA is not a form you fill in once the …
Read articleReading time: 3 min
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What to do in the event of a data breach
A data breach has to be reported to the Dutch Data Protection Authority within 72 hours, but only where the breach is likely to result in a risk to the people whose data has leaked. That deadline starts running as soon as you become aware of the breach. When someone calls us about a data breach, the …
Read articleReading time: 4 min -
The six GDPR principles explained
The six GDPR principles are lawfulness, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation and integrity. They are set out in Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation and apply to every organisation that processes personal data. Almost every privacy question that lands on …
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AI content must be recognisable
Since 2 August 2026, your audience has to be able to tell when AI is involved. What that means in practice for a chatbot, an advertisement using generated models or a film full of artificial imagery is worked out in new Commission guidelines. They also show where the room to manoeuvre lies.
Read articleReading time: 7 min -
German court rules out free use of music for AI: what does the GEMA judgment mean for authors?
Six compositions from GEMA's repertoire surfaced in music that Suno generated, although the prompts had not asked for them. For the court, that pointed to a model which had retained parts of those works. When does training become an act of reproduction under copyright law, and what does that mean for authors who see their work disappear into datasets?
Read articleReading time: 8 min
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A low-budget film production and still fair remuneration
The Amsterdam District Court is hearing a dispute between a film producer and a crew member on a super low-budget feature that went on to become the best-attended Dutch cinema release of the year. What is fair remuneration when the budget simply does not allow it? Roland Wigman on deferment, the solution the film industry has known for years.
Read articleReading time: 4 min
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Culture and cultural differences
That ‘Europe’ is plagued by cultural differences is something an European is confronted with daily. The differences may show themselves in very many ways: budget responsibility, role of the state, an individual’s responsibilities, individual’s liberties, etc. In my view they show themselves often in …
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A trade mark or design right on your dish? Get it registered!
Social media is full of it: the croissant filled with Swiss cream and topped with a layer of pink icing or chocolate, otherwise known as the crompouce. And so pastry chefs have taken to their ovens en masse to ride the hype. But in their enthusiasm they forgot to check the trade mark and design …
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Government, leave Musk's X (fka Twitter)
X, is disruptive and malignant. X harbours and stimulates multiple attacks on our liberal democracy. X’ algorithms promote extreme opinions. People no longer connect with each other. There is no open and fruitful exchange of ideas. Deliberately created disruptive misinformation remains …
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What does the transparency obligation mean for you as an exploiter?
The transparency obligation under Dutch author's contract law has applied since 7 June 2022. Merel Teunissen on what it asks of publishers, producers and broadcasters: which information you owe your makers, how sub-licensees fit in, and the two situations in which you may withhold it. Spoiler: your records will have to be in good order.
Read articleReading time: 6 min -
The transparency obligation: what information must an exploiter give me as a maker or performer?
Since 7 June 2022, anyone who has entrusted the exploitation of their work to another has had the right to be informed annually about that exploitation and about what it earns. Merel Teunissen on what the exploiter has to disclose, how sub-licensees fit in, when the obligation does not apply and what you can do when it is not met.
Read articleReading time: 7 min -
Throwing out the GDPR to make Central Bank Digital Currency?
A monetary paradox abounds in the world’s wealthiest nations: the most money is spent, while it seems that day by day fewer people carry bills and coins in their wallets. The opposite paradox exists in the global south, where most people don’t even have a bank account so instead rely on …
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NFT secondary markets: Unlimited royalties or one-time resale rights?
The growing craze behind NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and the exuberant prices which they sell for mean that more and more artists are considering selling tokens of ownership of their artworks on the blockchain as collectibles. The hype and the value involved, brings with it interesting innovations …
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NFTs and Shared Ownership
Another season, another NFT trend. The market in non-fungible tokens that made global headlines this year, is still making waves. One of the more recent developments has been the application of NFTs in the real-estate realm. Though the first NFT-based auction of real estate occurred in 2017, the …
Read articleReading time: 10 min -
How to NFT
So you want to join the NFT hype. Maybe you have an unpublished photograph lying around. Maybe you published an image years ago that people loved and you would like to tokenise it. Maybe you modelled in a photoshoot and you would now like to add ‘NFT-aficionado’ to your influencer repertoire. In any …
Read articleReading time: 7 min -
NFTs and Copyright Infringement
Imagine you are the artist of an image and you hold the associated copyrights, as well. On one of your leisurely strolls across the internet, you find that someone has made an NFT of your image and has minted a thousand of these NFTs. These are now recorded on the blockchain. Only, you have never …
Read articleReading time: 6 min -
How do you get fake reviews removed?
From hairdressers to literature, these days we order and book everything online. Reviews left by other users are a great help in doing so. How do you choose between the hundreds of toasters on an online marketplace, or the endless list of carrot cake recipes? Without a personal recommendation we …
Read articleReading time: 11 min -
NFTs: Privacy and Data Protection
If you are on instagram, chances are you have seen your favourite artists start selling their pieces as NFTs. If you read the newspaper, you will have read about the first tweet selling for millions. If you are more of a long-read article enthusiast, you may have read about the environmental impact …
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What does ownership of an NFT mean?
You may have noticed that NFTs have been popping up in the news. Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, sold a collage of his works for a whopping $69.3 million worth of Ether, a cryptocurrency. Quite the sum for a JPEG file. Everybody seems to be jumping on the NFT train lately; Taco Bell …
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No cure, no pay on the blockchain
In March of last year, an Amsterdam resident won back €470 in service fees from AirBnB. When booking with AirBnB, both the host and the renter are charged service fees, and the judges found that this double charging broke Dutch law. Subsequently, advertisements to claim your service fees back …
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Selling Streams: Revenue in the Digital Music Industry
There is a lot of money in music, that is not a secret. Most of us also know that a considerable part of the revenue is not earned by the artists themselves. But it remains somewhat unclear who earns from whom and where exactly the money is coming from. Like the rest of the world, the music industry …
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Corona Vaccinations and the GDPR
About half of Dutch healthcare workers intend to get the Covid-19 vaccine, according to a poll conducted by the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions. The attitude to vaccination varies greatly between sectors: Among those working in university medical centres, approximately two thirds are willing to get …
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Copyright and anonymity: Banksy tries trademarks
‘Copyright is for losers’ according to street artist Banksy. Unsurprisingly, this has led to several of his artworks being printed on various articles which are then sold by numerous companies. Among them is the Londen-based company Full Colour Black, which produces postcards. Apparently, Banksy …
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Fake news censorship: the limits of freedom of expression
A couple of months ago, the New York Post published an article on its website, which sharply criticised the American (then) presidential candidate Joe Biden. Private emails supposedly leaked to the press, showing that Biden would have met with an adviser for the Ukranian company Burima during his …
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What can you do with NFTs?
This is Dragon, a cryptokitten that was sold for 170.000 dollars two years ago. Cryptokitties are at once blockchain collectibles and a game of sorts. The cats can be bred, resulting in new cats which will have a new generation on the Ethereum blockchain. The limited number of early-generation …
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Supreme Court (finally) rules on article 45d of the Copyright Act
Art. 45d of the Dutch Copyright Act (hereinafter DCA) regulates the presumption of transfer of rights from the author to the producer of a film. The scope of this article has been the subject of discussion for years. authors and collective management organisations (hereinafter CMOs) have always …
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New draft EU regulation governing crypto-assets leaked
Last month a proposal for a regulation on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA) was leaked to the press. It concerns a 168-page document consisting of 114 articles. The proposal has four main self-proclaimed objectives. First, to provide legal certainty and regulatory clarity for all crypto-assets that …
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Blockchain and the controller under the GDPR: finding a necessary balance for BC to become a mainstream infrastructure
Blockchain obviously has not been the focus of the people that drafted the GDPR. It simply wasn’t there yet. The GDPR is written with some sort of central control in mind. That is not how blockchain is supposed to work. The consequences of that and the way Europechain deals with that are detailed in …
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Tokenize the EURO!
When bitcoin was introduced, many believed that this blockchain based crypto coin would replace the “old” money like the euro and dollar (also known as “fiat” money). All payments would be made in crypto. Fiat would become obsolete. Users wouldn’t need banks anymore. They would trade freely, …
Read articleReading time: 7 min -
Blockchain and the right to be forgotten
Is the blockchain and EU privacy laws a bad marriage? One might think so. Isn’t the EU privacy law all about the right to be forgotten? To be erased from a system one wants to break free from? And isn’t it impossible to be forgotten once your data are on a blockchain? And therefore, …
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Litigating architects
Litigating architects; a real trend. Take architect Fons Verheijen for instance, who fought the renovation of ‘his’ Naturalis in court for two years. In a remarkable interim ruling the judge found that the renovation – necessary to accommodate the increase in visitors – constituted an infringement …
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Blockchain: everyone’s a capitalist!
With blockchain one can divide up any object into countless pieces and sell or rent out these pieces, and keep track of everything in a way that is as safe as the old-fashioned land registry, but infinitely cheaper. All the buyers of these pieces become co-owners of the object. The blockchain does …
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Google Customer Match: without permission, dubious from a privacy view point.
Widely used and valuable: Google Customer Match. But often permission is required, due to privacy regulations. When this is required and it is lacking, Google Customer Match is against the law. Google Customer Match. A useful system to approach one’s own customers through Google. It makes …
Read articleReading time: 7 min -
Save the free press: just 1 cent per click!
What if all professionals pay 1 cent every time a visitor clicks on one of the hyperlinks they offer? Then the press (and other producers) will finally be paid a reasonable fee for the value they add. The independent press is struggling. Subscriptions have halted and advertising revenue wanes. …
Read articleReading time: 6 min -
Colourful Rebel jumpers
Fashionable Amsterdam is mad about Colourful Rebel’s jumpers. The brand is clearly very popular and is becoming better known all the time. Riding along on that success sounds attractive, but how far can you take it? In March 2016 Colourful Rebel discovered that the retail chain Hip&Go was …
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Startup ESSENTIALS
What to do with shares and shareholder agreements? Establish agreements: it seems clear, but if you have to work with it, your e-mailbox quickly fills up with a ton of documents. What should you do with all those papers? The only thing you want is to sign and get on with things. But you must …
Read articleReading time: 18 min
