Risk of joint liability

As a general rule, social media sites offer copyrights holders a whole host of ways to contact them and flag issues in order to limit their risk of joint liability. For example, YouTube provides an automatic detection system for content which violates copyright known...

Transmission of a work via social media

The controversy surrounding the question of whether the transmission of a work via social media violates the right of distribution has very little impact in practice. If we consider that the right of distribution only concerns physical copies, then the transmission of...

Right of integrity

The right of integrity does not cover minor technical processing such as recording the work in a different format. However, be aware that this type of act is subject to the exclusive right of reproduction and therefore requires permission.

Modifications to a work

The issue of changing a work applies both to the original and any copies of that work. This means the question of who owns the original work actually matters very little.

Violation of Moral Rights

The specific way in which social media function leaves users open to breaching the right of paternity. In fact, publishing a work without the right to do so and without mentioning the same of its author is a violation of Art. 9 CopA. Any subsequent users will...

Acting for commercial gain

According to a decision of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, the existence of a commercial gain is dependent on “the time and resources that the offender dedicates to the criminal actions, the frequency of the acts within a given period of time, his anticipated or...

Offence prosecuted on complaint and ex officio

In general, violations of criminal provisions in copyright law will be prosecuted only by complaint by the injured party. The right of the injured party to initiate a prosecution by bringing a complaint or to end the prosecution by revoking the complaint gives the...

Precautionary taking of evidence

If, after the summary proceedings for preliminary measures, the principal action is not yet pending, the court will set a deadline within which the applicant must file their action, subject to the ordered measure becoming automatically ineffective in the event of...