Insights on Liaise Advocaten

Culture and cultural differences

Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 either a north / south divide or an east / west divide, although differences are also around within a few mile radius (think in The Netherlands about the (cultural) difference between someone from Friesland and someone from Limburg).

Government, leave Musk's X (fka Twitter)

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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 available and can be widely shared. Many accounts are non-human and serve only to spread misinformation. There is often algorithm-driven malevolence. X gives the Putins of this world a significant weapon for their attack on democracy.

Throwing out the GDPR to make Central Bank Digital Currency?

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

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 cash. That’s why central banks around the world are researching the possibility of establishing a public financial infrastructure based on digital currencies. But will this mean that Big Brother will be able to cut the power when the bill isn’t paid?

NFT secondary markets: Unlimited royalties or one-time resale rights?

Thu, 05 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

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 when it comes to the possibility for visual artists to earn from the resale of their tokens on the blockchain through automatic charging of royalties (or rather resale rights) by smart contracts.

NFTs and Shared Ownership

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

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 idea is only now taking hold on a larger scale, probably due to all the publicity. Using the technology may provide a more efficient, traceable and secure way to go about real-estate transactions. A more fitting method for the digital generation. This generation is facing some issues with real estate and NFTs alike, however: both are becoming increasingly unaffordable. One of the solutions to this issue is that friends are co-buying housing and fractionalised NFTs have been introduced. In both cases, buyers are able to invest a smaller amount while obtaining shared ownership. An interesting development which poses new legal questions. In this blog, we will discuss what shared ownership means for NFTs.

How to NFT

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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 case, you want to create an NFT of an image. How do you go about this? Whose permission do you need? Essentially, how-to-NFT?

NFTs and Copyright Infringement

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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 given permission to do such a thing. Now, the image is public and available for anyone to see. This issue is not just a hypothetical, there have already been instances of in-game paintings, tweets and digital artworks being tokenised without permission. So, what do you do when this happens?

NFTs: Privacy and Data Protection

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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 associated with NFTs. The point is, where we described the trend around NFTs as fairly inconspicuous in our first blog, the topic is ubiquitous nowadays. With this surge in popularity, myriad questions arise, especially since the NFTs do not fit neatly into existing regulatory frameworks and neither does the blockchain they live on. We have already addressed some of these questions. In our first blog, we explain what NFTs are and what you can do with them. In a second, we delve into the ownership rights. Now, we tackle a third topic: privacy and data protection. As NFTs are stored on the blockchain, the information recorded is immutable. Is this compatible with the GDPR? What are the challenges that NFTs face in terms of data protection laws?

What does ownership of an NFT mean?

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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 has made NFT taco’s to keep in your digital wallets, tweets are being sold for millions and collectibles and art have seen dramatic price increases.

No cure, no pay on the blockchain

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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 through a conditional fee class action started popping up left and right. Over 30.000 people have registered with one of the companies handling the class action. Unsurprising, as they take no risk due to the conditional fees, also referred to as contingent fees (in the US) or ‘no cure, no pay’. Essentially, this means that legal fees do not have to be paid if the case is lost. If the case is won, an agreed upon percentage of the proceeds goes to the firm/company which has ‘invested’ in the case.

Selling Streams: Revenue in the Digital Music Industry

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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 has changed substantially over the last few decades. Vinyl has had to make way for Spotify (excluding the trendy student and nostalgic enthusiast) and hardly anyone buys albums anymore. It seems as if it has become harder to make money from music, even though access to music from all over the world has increased profoundly. Which begs the question: what is the deal with streaming?

Corona Vaccinations and the GDPR

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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 vaccinated, whereas only forty percent of those working in nursing homes are. It also seems older employees are more willing than younger ones; of those under thirty, only a quarter intends to get the vaccine. Commonly listed worries include the fast development as well as potential side-effects. In any case, it isn’t clear who is planning to get vaccinated and who is not. Potentially problematic, as privacy legislation also prohibits employers from asking.

Copyright and anonymity: Banksy tries trademarks

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

‘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 does not deem trademark rights to be for losers, as he has registered multiple of his works as a sign with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). He has done this through Pest Control Office Ltd., to retain his anonymity.

Fake news censorship: the limits of freedom of expression

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

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 vice-presidency, while his son Hunter was on the board. This sparked controversy, as Biden sr. was working on policy for Ukraine at the time. The reliability of this information and the authenticity of the emails have been called into question, however. Facebook and Twitter took a big step in imposing restrictions on the article.

What can you do with NFTs?

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

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 kitties have the highest collection value. Cryptokitties are an example of non-fungible tokens. While cryptocurrencies such as BitCoin have been the talk of the town for quite some time, they are far from the only blockchain technology on the rise. Among the more inconspicuous developments are these non-fungible tokens. So, what are they exactly? And what can you do with them?

New draft EU regulation governing crypto-assets leaked

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

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 have not yet been covered by existing financial services legislation. Second, to support innovation and fair competition by providing a safe and proportionate framework to operate in. Third, to provide consumer and investor protection. Finally, to ensure financial stability and orderly monetary policy.

Supreme Court (finally) rules on article 45d of the Copyright Act

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

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 argued that the presumption of transfer would not hold if the author had assigned the rights to his contribution to a CMO prior to the completion of said contribution. As early as 2011 [link], I remarked that I found this view to be inconsistent with the text and scope of the Copyright Act as well as the Berne Convention. On October 2nd, the Dutch Supreme Court gave judgment in the case Lira v. Ziggo. The Supreme Court confirms my long established position.

Blockchain and the controller under the GDPR: finding a necessary balance for BC to become a mainstream infrastructure

Fri, 08 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

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 this blogpost.

One can give many rights to a human, but without knowing against whom he or she may invoke them, rights don’t mean anything. Therefore the GDPR introduces the “data controller”, That is the person towards whom the people may turn. A GDPR “data controller” basically controls the data. It determines the “what” and “how” of the use of the data. E.g. if a company stores and uses data to communicate with its clients, such company “controls” such use and is the controller. If a controller hires other parties to help him with the processing, those hired hands are called: “data processors”. “Use”, “store” and many other actions regarding data are called “processing” in the GDPR.

Tokenize the EURO!

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

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, globally and independently. Furthermore, blockchain would enable additional smart contracts to automate myriads of transactions.

This has not happened. Fiat money remains dominant and bitcoin use is hardly growing, if not declining. Blockchain is rapidly growing but its deployment is often held back because there is no smooth interaction between blockchain and fiat money.

Blockchain and the right to be forgotten

Fri, 18 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

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, isn’t the blockchain in this respect always totally incompatible with the EU law?

The short answer is no.

Litigating architects

Fri, 02 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

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 of the personality rights of the architect. These are certain rights a maker enjoys, to protect his reputation. One of these rights is the right of the maker to oppose deformities, mutilations or other harm done to his work, which are considered so terrible that they drag his honour and good name through the mud. The judge also announced that, in her final verdict, she would address the consequences this would have for the renovation. In the meantime, Naturalis happily kept on renovating.

Blockchain: everyone’s a capitalist!

Wed, 15 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

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 the work; from making and receiving payments to managing decisions on the future of the object. Everyone can invest like this.

Google Customer Match: without permission, dubious from a privacy view point.

Mon, 16 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

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 advertisers’ customers see their ads when they type a search request that is related to the advertisers’ products. That is, if they are Google subscribers. These customers/Google subscribers are already their customers, so it is likely that they feel less hesitant than non-customers about entering into a new agreement with the advertiser.

Save the free press: just 1 cent per click!

Mon, 09 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

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. Visitors to news media websites don’t want to pay for its content. Pay walls don’t function well: very few regular visitors opt for a subscription. A smooth micro payments system to pay small amounts per article read, doesn’t exist. A service like Blendle, in actual fact a form of organising micro payments, is not flourishing, to say the least. What is being paid for online use, goes through a complex system of advertisements. However, the bulk of the advertiser’s money doesn’t end up with the press, but with players like Google and Facebook. Either direct or through their ad agencies.

Startup ESSENTIALS

Thu, 12 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

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 remember: about tag and drag, good leaver, caps, governance, shareholders’ meetings and God knows what else.