Duration
20h Th
Number of credits
| Master in law (120 ECTS) | 5 crédits | |||
| Advanced Master in European Law | 3 crédits | |||
| Extra courses intended for exchange students (Erasmus, ...) (Faculty of Law, Political Science and Criminology) | 5 crédits |
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
Copyright is a an exclusive Intellectual Property right that gives protection to any expression, provided it is original.
The copyright law class aims at presenting the whole copyright law, including protection of computer programs and databases. The class addresses international law, European Union law and Belgian law, focusing on these last two. Emphasis is put on the case law of the Court of justice of the European Union.
The class is orangized with seven lessons (subject to change ; a lesson may be taucht on two classes):
- General introduction
- The subject matter of copyright law
- The scope of protection
- The rights of the author
- Exceptions and limitations to copyright
- Ownership/Contracts/Duration/Enforcement
- Other forms of protection/Evolution and trends in EU law
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
By the end of the course, the students should be able to:
- Identify and apply the appicable rules
- Understand their functioning and rationale
- Criticize their underpinnings and application
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
There are no prerequisites for this course.
It is nonetheless recommended that students have a basic understanding of intellectual property law and European substantive law.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
The class is given in a mixed form, combining recorded ex cathedra lessons and interactive debates.
In order to prepare some lessons and to allow their full participation, students are required to watch the videos of the recorded lessons. The students can be suggested to read additional material (case law, doctrine).
Interactive discussions are complentary to the recorded lessons and are useful (eventually necessary) in order to fully understand the class.
A collection of texts (statutes, case law) is provided to the students.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
The class is given using a hybrid method.
Lessons of an ex cathedra copyright law class are previously recorded and the videos are communicated to the students at the beginning of the semester. The students must watch these videos, which content will be subject to the examination.
On campus (with live streaming), sessions will be held during the which we will discuss the content of the videos. The discussion can take the form of a Q/R session, the analysis of a court decision, solving a practical test case, etc. depending on the lession concerned in the video discussed.
Recommended or required readings
Suggested reading (not compulsory) : J. Cabay, V. Delforge, V. Fossoul, M. Lambrecht, 20 ans de nouveau droit d'auteur - 20 jaar nieuw auteursrecht, Limal, Anthemis, 2015, 402 p.
Compulsory readings : they are communicated during the class.
Material for the class : the Powerpoint presentations and their comments in the videos are the basic material. They should be completed with the content of the interactive debates.
The evaluation will take the form of an oral examination. An active participation of the students during the lessons is taken into account in the final evaluation.
Recommandation for the exam (subject to change):
- Exam is based on the content of the Powerpoint presentation completed with discussions during the oral lessons.
- Examination is oral and will last about 25 minutes with previously about 25 minutes for preparation. Exam is in two parts.
- In the first part, the student will present a core concept of copyright law in a structured way and with appropriate references. Knowledge and structuring abilities will be decisive.
- In the second part, starting from an excerpt of a court's decision, the student will be asked various questions related to this excerpt. Analyzing skills, application and critical thought will be decisive.
- At the exam, the student will have access to some of the material (statutes, case law). He/she will not have access to the Powerpoint presentations.
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
The course is scheduled every year in the second term.
In 2020-2021, it will be held Mondays from 10:00 to 12:30.
Interactive debates will be held on campus following this schedule.
Contacts
Titulaire : Julien Cabay (jcabay@ulg.ac.be ; jcabay@ulb.ac.be)