Summary
Case note, written with Stijn Debaene, on a first-instance Belgian decision concerning Bhaalu, a service that lets users record television programmes on remote servers in the cloud rather than on a home recorder. The note asks whether such copies remain covered by the private copying exception and examines who makes the copy, whether it stays within the family circle, the lawfulness of the source, the legal qualification of watching the copy and the three-step test. It concludes that a copy is not excluded from the exception merely because it is made in the cloud, but that the technical features of each system shape the analysis, leaving the decision to the Antwerp Court of Appeal.
Reference
H. Haouideg et S. Debaene, « L'exception de copie privée dans les nuages », I.R.D.I., 2014, liv. 4, p. 685.