Dutch 
Staff
Stef van Gompel
PhD-candidate
 
Institute for Information Law (IViR)

Visiting address
Korte Spinhuissteeg 3
1012 CG Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Post address
Kloveniersburgwal 48
1012 CX Amsterdam
The Netherlands

kamer B2.13
tel: +31 20 - 525 36 43
fax: +31 20 - 525 30 33
 


Curriculum Vitae
Stef van Gompel studied Law at the University of Amsterdam, where he obtained his law degree (LL.M.) cum laude in 2005. He specialised in Intellectual Property Law and Media and Information Law. He wrote his master's thesis on the regulation of collective management societies in Europe. In 2004, he started as an intern at IViR, where he participated in a variety of research projects in different areas of Information Law.

Before studying Law, he studied Music Management at the Fontys Business College of Higher Education in Tilburg, where he graduated in 1999. During an internship at the collective management society, SENA, he conducted research on the legal framework and the distribution regulations of collective management societies concerning the right to equitable remuneration for performing artists in seven EU Member States. 

He is currently writing his Ph.D. thesis on the history of, rationales for, and possible future of, the prohibition of copyright formalities.


Publications
(with P.B. Hugenholtz) The Orphan Works Problem: The Copyright Conundrum of Digitizing Large-Scale Audiovisual Archives, and How to Solve it, Popular Communication - The International Journal of Media and Culture, 2010-1, p. 61-71.

This article examines the problem of 'orphan works' against the background of various projects for mass-digitization of audiovisual content. Orphan works are works for which the copyright owners cannot be identified or located. The fact that a particular work is 'orphaned' makes it impossible to clear the rights and to legally reutilize the work. This article describes and evaluates six different possible regulatory solutions to the orphan works problem, including extended collective licensing and compulsory licensing. The article concludes that if one wants to make the vast European audiovisual cultural heritage available for future usage, regulatory intervention is indispensable.

03.03.2010


(with M.M.M. van Eechoud, P.B. Hugenholtz, L. Guibault and N. Helberger) Harmonizing European Copyright Law: The Challenges of Better Lawmaking, Information Law Series 19, Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International 2009.

Nobody likes today’s copyright law. Widespread unauthorized use of copyright material proliferates with impunity, while citizens and users protest that intrusive copyright and related rights law stifle cultural expression. Equipment manufacturers and intermediaries complain about yet more ’security’ features that complicate their products and services and encumber marketing, while content owners desperately want enforcement to work. And of course it is crucial that whatever regulatory instruments come into play must not age prematurely in Internet time.
The European Union faces the daunting challenge of articulating coherent copyright policies that satisfy these contradictory multiple demands. Yet the legal framework must conform to the European Union’s remit of fostering economic growth in a common market, while respecting the national traditions of its still growing family of Member States. Clearly, an extraordinary balancing act is called for if justice is to be done to all of the private and public interests affected.
So how has the European acquis communautaire scored on these issues so far? In this groundbreaking study the Institute for Information Law of the University of Amsterdam brings its extensive academic expertise to bear on this question. The authors scrutinize the present law as laid down in the seven copyright and related rights directives, against the background of the relevant international standards of the Berne Convention, the TRIPs agreement, and the WIPO Internet Treaties. They map out in detail the degree to which certain areas of copyright have been harmonized as they expose the gaps and inconsistencies in the acquis and the urgent unresolved issues that persist. They identify the EU’s ambitions in relation to its present and future competences (following the Lisbon Reform) to regulate copyright, and to its Better Regulation agenda. Following a comprehensive analysis of almost two decades of regulatory intervention, they move on to the salient current trends that point toward a more coherent and balanced European copyright law.

13.10.2009


(with N. Helberger, N. Dufft & P.B. Hugenholtz) Never Forever: Why Extending the Term of Protection for Sound Recordings is a Bad Idea, European Intellectual Property Review, 2008-5, p. 174-181.

This article critically examines the arguments put forward in favour of a term extension of related rights of phonogram producers. The authors conclude that there are no convincing reasons to extend the existing term of protection. The article also explains why the popular argument that a term extension would improve the situation of performers is probably a fallacy.

04.06.2008


Unlocking the Potential of Pre-Existing Content: How to Address the Issue of Orphan Works in Europe?, IIC International Review of Intellectual property and Competition Law, Vol. 38 (2007), No. 6, p. 669-702.

04.06.2008


Audiovisual Archives and the Inability to Clear Rights in Orphan Works, IRIS plus (Supplement to IRIS - Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory), 2007-4.

There is also a German and French translation of this article.

This article deals with the question of 'orphan works', i.e., works whose right owners cannot be identified or located. The fact that a particular work is orphaned makes it impossible to clear the rights and to legally reutilise the work. To unlock the potential of the many pre-existing works stored in audiovisual archives, it is essential that legal solutions will be devised to adequately address this problem. This article examines and evaluates a number of solutions that could possibly be introduced at the European or national level.

20.04.2007


(with L. Guibault) Collective Management in the European Union, also published in: Daniel Gervais (ed.), Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights, The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 2006, p. 117-152.

20.03.2007


(with P.B. Hugenholtz, M.M.M. van Eechoud 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


(with N. Helberger, N. Dufft, 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.

03.02.2006


Updated 03.03.2010