Copyright

CJEU

2026-07-22 03:11:00

EU court says VPNs are lawful tools and bypassing geo-blocks does not by itself create copyright liability

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Case C-788/24 that VPNs are lawful technical tools and that the mere fact users can bypass geo-blocking does not make publishers liable for copyright infringement. The dispute stemmed from an online academic edition of Anne Frank diary manuscripts made available by Dutch and Belgian institutions, which hosted the material in Belgium and blocked Dutch IP addresses because copyright status differs across countries. While the manuscripts have entered the public domain in Belgium and roughly 60 other jurisdictions, parts of the content remain protected in the Netherlands until 2037. A Swiss foundation, Anne Frank Fonds, argued that geo-blocking was ineffective because Dutch users could easily use a VPN to appear to be in Belgium. The EU court rejected that argument, saying measures that can be circumvented are not automatically ineffective if the publisher used state-of-the-art geo-blocking. The ruling also said VPN providers and similar services do not bear joint liability for users who evade access restrictions. The decision is being viewed as a major legal win for the VPN industry in Europe and a practical standard for handling the tension between borderless internet access and territorial copyright rules.

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Life8

2026-07-18 09:24:45

Taiwan model accuses Life8 of using AI-generated lookalike images, raising portrait-rights questions

A male model in Taiwan has accused apparel brand Life8 of using AI-generated product images that closely copied his facial features and appearance without consent, pushing a dispute over portrait rights into the spotlight. The model, identified in the report as surnamed Lin and using the social account iamgalin, said he recognized himself in the images through details including his pre-surgery single eyelid, a tattoo on the right side of his neck, and his usual pose and head angle. He said the images were posted on Life8’s official website to sell clothing and argued that clients could mistakenly think he had changed his appearance, affecting future work. Life8 first said the images were generated by AI based on prompts and were not created with any specific person as the subject. The company later said it had privately contacted the model to discuss portrait-rights handling and follow-up authorization, a shift that triggered criticism online because the two statements appeared inconsistent. The report says the case has since expanded beyond one brand, with other models sharing similar experiences. It also lays out the legal questions likely to matter in Taiwan, including portrait rights under the Civil Code, the limits of copyright claims by models, the role of photographers and commissioning brands in training-image disputes, and whether purely AI-generated product images can qualify for copyright protection at all.

1970

X

2026-07-16 15:29:23

X tightens creator revenue-sharing rules, removes nearly 4,000 accounts and plans to return over $1 million to original creators

X is stepping up enforcement in its Creator Revenue Share program, with product executive Nikita Bier saying the platform has upgraded its anti-abuse systems to target engagement bait and copied content. Under the updated policy, accounts that post engagement-farming content three times or more — including prompts such as asking users to reply in exchange for follows — can be removed from the revenue-sharing program and referred to the policy team for additional action, including potential suspension. Bier said X is using Grok AI to identify the behavior and that nearly 4,000 accounts were removed from the monetization program on the day of the announcement alone. He also said X’s updated content-detection model can identify duplicate content at three times the previous rate. The company said creators will not earn from reposted material that has only been lightly altered, such as by adding a watermark, intro clip, or simple edits. The related monetization revenue will instead be returned to the original publisher. The same rule applies to copied high-traffic text posts. Bier said the current detection cycle found about 1.5 million pieces of stolen content, and X expects more than $1 million in revenue to be redistributed to original creators as a result of the cleanup.

8880

Telegram

2026-07-09 12:00:13

Spain Bans Telegram Over Copyright Probe Refusal, Affecting 8 Million Users

Spain's National Court has ordered a temporary ban on Telegram for failing to cooperate in an unauthorized content investigation. Four major media companies accuse the platform of copyright infringement. The ban affects 8 million users (18% of the population).

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