This book is an updated English language version of a highly regarded commentary published in German by Springer in 2001, covering all of the EU Directives on copyright law and related rights, with article-by-article analysis of the provisions, as well as the relevant background of general EC law.

The analysis of each article examines its antecedents in national laws, the negotiating history, the meaning and purpose of the wording, interpretive rulings by the European Court of Justice, and key issues relating to implentation of the regulations and rulings by the Member States, concentrating in particular on the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Hungary.

The revised English edition takes into account the many significant developments which have taken place since the German edition was published, including the Software Directive, the Database Directive, the revised text of the Product Piracy Regulation, the Enforcement Directive and the review of the EC legal framework in the field of Copyright and Related Rights.

This book is a must have text for practitioners and academics working in the areas of intellectual property law and policy-making as it offers for the first time in the English language, a clear and comprehensive analysis of European Copyright Law in the style of a commentary. Relevant Europe-wide, this book also has a global market given the importance of the EU in intellectual property circles around the world.