Hyperlinks and Communication to the Public: Svensson Case and its Impact on the EU law and Beyond

Date: April 22, 2014 (Tuesday)

Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm

Venue: Room 824, 8/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower,Centennial Campus, HKU

Speaker: Dr. Poorna Mysoor, Lecturer in Law, University of Oxford

Abstract: Svensson v Retriever Sverige AB, Case C-466/12, decided in February, 2014 gave an unexpectedly simplistic view of what amounts to communication to the public on the Internet. This decision is likely to have a far reaching effect, not only on our day to day dealings with the content on the Internet, but also on the courts of law in the rest of the EU, and perhaps beyond. The presentation will cover the legal context of the right of communication to the public, the dispute in Svensson case, the ruling and its effects.

About the speaker: Poorna is pursuing a DPhil at the University of Oxford. Having received her undergraduate law degree from National Law School, Bangalore, Poorna practiced in India as a litigator for a couple of years before moving to London to obtain her LLM from SOAS, University of London. She moved to Hong Kong in 2002 and practiced intellectual property law for about 10 years here, before moving to the academia. Poorna was also a research student for a year at HKU. Her research focus is implied licence in copyright law.