Natali Helberger is an assistant professor at the Institute for Information Law. She studied Law at the Freie Universität Berlin. She received her doctarate from the University of Amsterdam. Her thesis, Controlling Access to Content: Regulating Conditional Access in Digital Broadcasting (2005), examines the regulation of technical gateways and their implications for information law and policy, competition law and consumer rights and interests. It has been published by Kluwer International. In 2005, she was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

, C.J. Angelopoulos, J.V.J. van Hoboken, E. Swart, et al.) User-Created-Content: Supporting a participative Information Society, Final Report, Study carried out for the European Commission by IDATE, TNO and IViR, 2008.

28.10.2009

13.10.2009

(with J.V.J. van Hoboken) Looking Ahead—Future Issues when Reflecting on the Place of the iConsumer in Consumer Law and Copyright Law, Journal of Consumer Policy 2008-31, p. 489-96.

30.03.2009

(with A. Huygen, N.A.N.M. van Eijk et al) Ups and downs. Economic and cultural effects of file sharing on music, film and games (authorised translation), a study by TNO Information and Communication Technology, SEO Economic Research and the Institute for Information Law, commissioned by the Dutch Ministries of Education, Culture and Science, Economic Affairs and Justice, February 2009.

27.02.2009

'Making place for the iConsumer in Consumer Law', Journal of Consumer Policy 2008-31, p. 385-391.

27.02.2009

'"Access denied": How some e-commerce businesses re-errect national borders for online consumers, and what European law has to say about this', European Journal of Consumer Law 2007/2008-4, p. 472-506.

27.02.2009

From eyeball to creator - toying with audience empowerment in the Audiovisual Media Service Directive, Entertainment Law Review, 2008-6, p. 128-137.

06.10.2008

The Media-Literate Viewer, in: N.A.N.M. van Eijk & P.B. Hugenholtz (ed.) Dommering-bundel: Opstellen over informatierecht aangeboden aan prof. mr. E.J. Dommering, Amsterdam: Otto Cramwinckel Uitgever 2008, p. 135-148.

15.05.2008

(with P.B. Hugenholtz) No Place Like Home for Making a Copy: Private Copying in European Copyright Law and Consumer Law, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 2007-3, p. 1061-1098.

This article examines the intersection between copyright law and consumer law relating to private copying in Europe. In doing so, we will query the effectiveness of copyright law and consumer law as legal instruments to protect consumers in their dealings with information suppliers. Our goal is to demonstrate that while copyright law in Europe does offer a measure of comfort to consumers, the legal instruments of European consumer law are potentially more effective in achieving the freedom to make private copies that European consumers generally expect.

24.01.2008

The Changing Role of the User in the "Television Without Frontiers Directive", in Legal Aspects of Video on Demand, IRIS Special, December 2007.

The changing role of users of audiovisual services might eventually shake the very base of traditional media policy. It is early days yet. It is certainly not too early, however, to become aware of changes and muse about possible implications for media law and policy. The objective of this article is to scrutinize some aspects of traditional government involvement with audiovisual media from the perspective of the changing role of the users. Aspects that will be discussed include the justification for government intervention in the first place, the image of the user, the character of intervention and the new issues that are likely to play a role in future media law and policy. The point of reference will be the revised proposal for a Directive on the Regulation of Audiovisual Media Services.

24.01.2008

Some critical reflections about access obligations under the European Communications Framework, Communications & Strategies, 2007-68.

European communications and competition policy has a tradition on access obligations as primary tool to discipline exclusive control over so called bottleneck facilities. In the 2007 Communication on the Review of the European Communications Framework, the European Commission stressed once more the importance of access rules as a tool to realize consumer welfare, competition and user rights, notably the right for users to access and distribute lawful content. This article will place some critical reflections on access obligations. Using the example of bottlenecks in digital broadcasting, it will show that access obligations that were successfully applied to traditional bottleneck situations are not necessarily the best or effective way of guaranteeing openness of the digital service market. The example of digital broadcasting is for many reasons interesting.

24.01.2008

L. Guibault, G. Westkamp, T. Rieber-Mohn, P.B. Hugenholtz, et al.), Study on the Implementation and Effect in Member States' laws of Directive 2001/29/EC on the Harmonisation of Certain Aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society, report to the European Commission, DG Internal Market, February 2007.

• See also Part II: The Implementation of Directive 2001/29/EC in the Member States, G. Westkamp, Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, February 2007.
• See also the executive summary.

This study, commissioned by the European Commission, examines the application of Directive 2001/29/EC in the light of the development of the digital market. Its purpose is to consider how Member States have implemented the Directive into national law and to assist the Commission in evaluating whether the Directive, as currently formulated, remains the appropriate response to the continuing challenges faced by the stakeholders concerned, such as rights holders, commercial users, consumers, educational and scientific users. As set out in specifications of the study set out by the Commission, its aim is "to assess the role that the Directive has played in fostering the digital market for goods and services in the four years since its adoption". The impact of the Directive on the development of digital (chiefly online) business models, therefore, will be the focal point of our enquiry throughout this study.

22.03.2007

Refusal to Serve Consumers because of their Nationality or Residence - Distortions in the Internal Market for E-commerce Transactions?, Briefing Note, European Parliament's Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, January 2007.

Technological progress and the internet bring the promise of an Internal Market for electronic services closer than ever into the reach of Europe's citizens. Yet, while European and national policies are committed to removing government-made obstacles to the free movement of services, some e-commerce businesses use technology to actually re-introduce territorial barriers. The goal of this briefing paper is to provide a first overview of the motives of e-commerce businesses to engage in territorial differentiation, to examine whether territorial differentiation can result in a serious distortion of the Internal Market and to make recommendations what measures should be taken to remove barriers that prevent consumers from buying goods and services on-line throughout the Internal Market.

20.03.2007

P.B. Hugenholtz, M.M.M. van Eechoud, S.J. van Gompel, et al. The Recasting of Copyright & Related Rights for the Knowledge Economy, report to the European Commission, DG Internal Market, November 2006, 308 p.
See also the executive summary.

Study carried out by the Institute for Information Law for the European Commission (DG Internal Market). Chapters 1 and 2 describe and examine the existing 'acquis communautaire' in the field of copyright and related (neighbouring) rights, with special focus on inconsistencies and unclarities. Chapters 3-6 deal with distinct issues that were identified a priori by the European Commission as meriting special attention: possible extension of the term of protection of phonograms (Chapter 3), possible alignment of the term of protection of co-written musical works (Chapter 4), the problems connected to multiple copyright ownership, including the issue of 'orphan works' (Chapter 5), and copyright awareness among consumers (Chapter 6). Chapter 7 provides an overall assessment of the benefits and drawbacks of the fifteen years of harmonisation of copyright and related rights in the EU and dwells on regulatory alternatives.

10.01.2007

France is one of the European countries where a particularly vivid public discussion about DRM and the private copying exception took place. This is thanks to the efforts of French consumer organisations taht initiated a number of court cases dealing with complaints of consumers about CDs and DVDs that could, among others, not be copied and ripped because of technical protection measures in place. This article discusses that latest DRM decision in France, a decision that went one step further than its predecessors when dealing with the difficult question of the relationship between DRM and private copying. 

07.03.2006

This article reports about the French implementation of the famed Article 6 (4) of the European Copyright Directive, the article that orders member states to guarantee that consumers can benefit from exceptions despite the application of technological protection measures. Considering the fact that France is the origin of a series of groundbreaking decisions in favour of a balance between DRM use and consumer interests, figuring prominently among them the private copyying exception, and all the public discussion those cases triggered, we have all reason to be curious about what the French legislator will come up with.

07.03.2006

As a result of modern content management technologies, individualisation, differentiation and conditioned access step into the place of traditional models of broad-casting content. In the light of these developments, the article provides a critical analysis of the proposals that were made to revise the Television Without Frontiers Directive and to protect “the right to information” of the broadcasting audience. The article will show that instead of modernizing the European broadcasting framework the proposals are focused on maintaining the status quo of an analogue past. It will make an argument in favor of a more viewer-oriented approach.

03.03.2006

The article will have a closer look at the charges of the EFF and a Californian lawyer against Sony BMG's latest DRM strategy. The Sony BMG case adds a number of new dimensions to the DRM and Consumer debate. The article will highlight some aspects, also against the background of similar recent case law in Europe.

14.02.2006

Digital Rights Management from a Consumer's perspective, IRIS plus, 2005-8, p. 1-8.

The purpose of this article is to consider the impact of DRM on people's use of digital content and on its availability and accessibility for consumers. It describes the area of conflict between the economic interest of the media industry to use DRM to protect rights to and marketing of digital content, and consumers' desire to use digital content in accordance with their own rights and legitimate interests without suffering any unfavourable consequences as they do so. The article explains why the current approach, where DRM is considered to be exclusively a copyright issue, is too narrow. It lists a series of equally important individual or informational interests which must be respected, linking DRM to the protection of consumers and access to digital content. The article makes some suggestions how this theme might be usefully dealt with in the future.

Published 23.11.2005

Apple's tight control over the FairPlay DRM system has caused many iPod users to complain that they cannot play certain files on their iPod, namely the files they bought from other online services, using a different DRM system. The proprietary control over FairPlay is also a thorn in the flesh of iTunes rivals who sought various ways to get around FairPlay's lack of interoperability. The French enterprise VirginMega tried it the legal way and so did it come that Apple's FairPlay was probably also the first case in which a competition authority in Europe had to decide if access to a Digital Rights Management system can be enforced on grounds of competition law.

Published 02.11.2005

The decision of the French court in Paris in the so-called Mulholland case has left a sour after-taste since. Could it be true that the privat copying exception, a long standing tradition in many national copyright laws, was in fact not much more than a toothless paper tiger? When we reported about this case we expressed our disbelief that this should have been the end of the private copying exception. And indeed, as the Court of Appeals has recently decided, the tiger may be made of paper, but it still has its teeth.

Published 13.10.2005

Control of access to content has become a vital aspect of many business models for modern broadcasting and online services. Using the example of digital broadcasting, the author reveals the resulting challenges for competition and public information policy and how they are addressed in European law governing competition, broadcasting, and telecommunications. Controlling Access to Content explores the relationship between electronic access control, freedom of expression and functioning competition. It scrutinizes the interplay between law and technique, and the ways in which broadcasting, telecommunications, and general competition law are inevitably interconnected.

See also the summary of the thesis.

Published 30.06.2005

(with N. Dufft, M.M. Groenenboom, K. Kerényi, C. Orwat en U. Riehm) Digital Rights Management and Consumer Acceptability: A Multi-Disciplinary Discussion of Consumer Concerns and Expectations, State of the Art Report - First Supplement, May 2005.

Published 21.06.2005

Copyright Law and Consumer Protection, European Consumer Law Group, February 2005.
Policy conclusions of the European Consumer Law Group (ECLG) based on a study carried out by L. Guibault and N. Helberger.

The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of certain key aspects of the relationship between copyright law and consumer protection. More particularly, the paper concentrates on what would appear today as the most problematic issue, from the perspective of the consumer, understood in the narrow sense of the word, namely the implementation of technological protection measures (TPM) and digital rights management (DRM) systems and its implication for the exercise of the private use exemption.

Published 20.05.2005

Thou shalt not mislead thy customer! The pitfalls of labelling and transparency, INDICARE Monitor, Vol. 1, no. 9, 25 February 2005.

The article explains why one should not mislead his customers. And the author is not even talking about rules of decency and fair play; she is talking about legal reasons, as recently confirmed by a court decision in France. The article also explains, however, why the issue of transparency is a tricky one, and under which conditions transparency could turn against the consumer.

Published 03.03.2005

(with N. Dufft, S. van Gompel, K. Kerényi, B. Krings, R. Lambers, C. Orwat and U. Riehm) ‘Digital Rights Management and Consumer Acceptability: A Multi-Disciplinary Discussion of Consumer Concerns and Expectations’, State-of-the-Art Report, INDICARE, December 2004.

Published 14.12.2004

Published 22.10.2004

Published 19.09.2002

The study offers an analysis of the use of conditional access systems for other reasons than the protection of remuneration interests. The report also examines the need to provide for additional legal protection by means of a Community initiative, such as a possible extension of the Conditional Access Directive. The report will give a legal and economic analysis of the most important non-remuneration reasons to use conditional access (CA), examine whether services based on conditional access for these reasons are endangered by piracy activities, to what extent existing legislation in the Member States provides for sufficient protection, and what the possible impact of the use of conditional access is on the Internal Market. Furthermore, the study analysis the specific legislation outside the European Union, notably in Australia, Canada, Japan and the US, as well as the relevant international rules at the level of the EC, WIPO and the Council of Europe.

Published 06.08.2001

Published 01.05.2001

This report analyses to what extent the Rome Convention (1961) and relevant instruments of the Council of Europe in the intellectual property field provide for sufficient protection of broadcasters in Europe. Background to the report is the changing technological environment over the last 40 years, particularly as regards convergence of the telecommunications, media and information technologies, piracy and the development of new services such as digital broadcasting services. The situation will be compared to current legal developments at EC and WIPO level. 
The aim of the report was to examine eventual gaps in protection where existing regulations are applied in modern times and to investigate in further activities which could be undertaken within the framework of the Council of Europe to ensure the satisfactory protection of the rights of broadcasting organisations.
The study was commissioned by the Council of Europe. Views expressed in the report are not those of the Organisation.

Published 29.11.2000

The article gives an overview on the existing international and regional provisions, particular at the level of WIPO and the European Community on the legal protection of copyrights and related rights in the audiovisual sector. Secondly, it introduces the most important pending proposals for an update of those provisions and concludes with some comparative remarks on the expected future state of protection.

Published 27.03.2001

Within Europe, the legal protection of pay-TV services against piracy is not as complete as service providers might hope. This article explores to what extent the recently adopted Conditional Access Directive will change this situation.

Published 24.02.2000

This article provides a critical description of the provisions of the recently adopted Conditional Access Directive, with particular emphasis on the present legal situation in Germany as regards the legal protection of conditional access devices. In this context, the author examines to what extent existing legislation in Germany meets the requirements of the Directive.

Published 24.02.2000

In the framework of the ‘Legal Guide to Audiovisual Media in Europe’ of the European Audiovisual Observatory, Strasbourg, this article reports on the recent legal situation in Liechtenstein in the fields of broadcasting, film, telecommunications and the global information society. As well as giving a concise overview of the relevant legislation and reflecting on the most recent legal developments, the report includes bibliographical references and addresses of responsible authorities.

Published 24.02.2000

The contribution to the ‘Legal Guide to Audiovisual Media in Europe’ of the European Audiovisual Observatory, Strasbourg, introduces the recent legislation on Monaco’s audiovisual sector. The article gives an overview of existing legislation and actual developments in the audiovisual sector of this country, and provides bibliographical references and relevant addresses.

Published 24.02.2000

‘Die Präzisierung des Sendestaatsprinzips in der Rechtsprechung des EuGH’, Zeitschrift für Urheber- und Medienrecht (ZUM), 1/98, p. 50-60 (

also available in zip-format - only 69 kB).

The jurisdiction of member states over transnationally operating broadcasters as laid down in the former version of the Television without Frontiers Directive has repeatedly caused legal conflicts. The issue of jurisdiction is of particular importance for the transborder activities of broadcasters, since national laws governing the transmission of broadcasts differ considerably in such important areas as advertisement rules and the protection of minors. In a number of recent decisions, the European Court of Justice clarified the principle of member states’ jurisdiction over broadcasters. This article provides an overview of the relevant judgements of the court, also taking into account the corresponding provisions of the (revised) Television without Frontiers Directive.

Published 24.02.2000

Updated 28.10.2009