Copyright around the world is in a race to keep up. Technology has the fast track, while legislators, lobbyists, and the public are going to the inside and looking to make their move.
In the digital age, this race is going to be not a sprint, but a marathon. And because digital is always global, developments in one region may potentially affect others.
As legal counsel and deputy head of the legal department at the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, Dr. Jessica Sanger watches closely the German courts and has a front-row seat on legislation across the European Union. At the London Book Fair in April, she told CCC’s Chris Kenneally that any European calculation on possible antitrust business activities differs from the American.
“Very generally speaking, I would say that in Europe the focus has shifted from pure protection of competition as a concept far more towards the protection of competition in the consumer interest. European antitrust policy is looking very much at the effects that any restrictive practice or any abuse may have on consumers’ interests,” she explained.
Dr. Jessica Sänger is Legal Counsel and Deputy Head of the Legal Department at Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. She studied Law at Exeter (U.K.) and Mainz (Germany) and has served as a visiting lecturer at Louisville (USA) and Bristol (U.K.) law schools, lecturing on Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Law of Broadcasting and the Press, and Copyright.
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