Belgian Court upholds Creative Commons licence

By EDRi · November 3, 2010

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Deutsch: [Belgischer Gerichtshof bestätigt Creative Commons Lizenz | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2329]

A local court in Nivelles, Belgium upheld in a case decided 26 October
2010 on the validity of the Creative Commons licence in a copyright
infringement case when a music group published its music under CC BY-NC-SA.

In this case reported by Professor Séverine Dussollier of the University of
Namur, a theatre adapted the music published by the band to make an
advertisement for their theatrical season. The ad was broadcast on the
national radio several times (with no attribution). The band refused the
damages of 1500 euro that the theatre proposed and decided to sue for
copyright infringement.

In its decision, the court recognized the CC licence as a valid permissive
copyright licence that has already been accepted by Dutch, Spanish and
US courts.

The decision also noted that the conditions of the decisions were breached
by not attributing the song to its creators and using it for commercial
purposes, which was prohibited by the CC licence used.

The court decided to award damages of 4500 euro to the complainants.

Decision Tribunal Nivelles – Lichôdmapwa (only in French, 26.10.2010)

Belgian Court recognises CC licences (2.11.2010)

Belgian Court recognises CC licences

EDRi-gram: Creative Commons license upheld in Dutch and Spanish courts (29.03.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.6/jurisprudence-creative-commons-europe