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Book review: ‘As you know, our (geo)blockade is perfectly legal’—the European Union, the Geo-Blocking Regulation and the future of copyright law
2025
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Details
Title
Book review: ‘As you know, our (geo)blockade is perfectly legal’—the European Union, the Geo-Blocking Regulation and the future of copyright law
Author
Item Type
Journal Article
Description
1 online resource (pages 432–434)
Summary
‘As you know, our blockade is perfectly legal’—these words are spoken by the fictional character Viceroy Nute Gunray in Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace (1999), directed by George Lucas. While it is possible to access and watch this movie on the subscription video-on-demand (VOD) service Disney+ in all European Union (EU) Member States, this is not the case with other movies and VOD providers, which are only available in select EU Member States.1 Restricting access to content based on the physical location of the user is commonly known as ‘geo-blocking’.2 The European Union Geo-Blocking Regulation, which came into force on 22 March 2018, was introduced to eliminate such barriers, aiming to be the Schengen Agreement of the online world.3 Nevertheless, some content can still be restricted within the EU Digital Single Market,4 as audiovisual services are excluded from the scope of the Regulation.5 For a long time, media companies have argued that territorial exclusivity is essential to their business models and survival, warning that its removal would threaten the creative and economic sustainability of the film and television sectors in Europe.6 This concern led the European film industry to sign a letter in 2023 opposing proposed legislation that would ban geo-blocking of audiovisual content across the EU, claiming it would drastically reduce the value of most European content and diminish incentives to invest in local language films7 Some legal scholars suggest that, given the challenges to territorial exclusivity in EU copyright law, a more effective solution would be to establish film-specific rules on exclusive rights, maintaining the viability of language market exclusivity.8 In this context, Marketa Trimble’s book remains highly relevant, particularly as discussions on the future of the Geo-blocking Regulation in the EU continue.
Series
Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 20, 6, 2025.
Linked Resources
Published
Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press, 2025.
Language
English
Copyright Information
https://academic.oup.com/pages/using-the-content/citation
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