3 Count: Lawful VPNs

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1: ‘VPNs Are Lawful Technical Tools,’ Says EU Court in Landmark Anne Frank Copyright Ruling

First off today, Rene Millman at TechRadar reports that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that virtual private networks (VPNs) are “lawful technical tools” and that failure to block VPN-using visitors is not a violation of copyright law.

The case stemmed from the online publication of Anne Frank’s historical manuscripts. Under many EU (and other) country’s copyright laws, the documents are already in the public domain. However, in the Netherlands, they are protected by copyright until 2037. The schools used geofencing to block access to the documents from countries where they are not public domain, but several users used VPNs to bypass those protections, prompting the lawsuit.

The CJEU has ruled that, as long a website employs “state-of-the-art” geo-blocking technology, they are not responsible if some users bypass it using VPNs. The case is the latest of many battles in the EU over VPNs and concerns about users bypassing copyright and other restrictions by using them. This ruling establishes that companies do not need to block VPNs in order to comply with copyright laws, but that geo-blocking may still be required.

2: US Appeals Court Upholds Win for Artist Jeff Koons in Copyright Case

Next up today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court decision dismissing a copyright infringement lawsuit against artist Jeff Koons.

Artist Michael Hayden filed the lawsuit in 2021, alleging that, in 1989, Koons created a series of images named Made in Heaven, which featured Koons and Ilona Staller, the Italian porn star and politician that would be, for a few years, his wife. Some of the images displayed a sculpture created by Hayden in 1988 for Staller to perform on. The lawsuit alleged that the use of the work in the images was an infringement of his copyright.

However, the lower court judge dismissed the case, saying that Hayden had waited too long to file the claim. The judge reasoned that Hayden should have been aware of the alleged infringement at the time as he was in Italy and the series was significant news at the time. Hayden appealed to the Second Circuit, but the tribunal has sided with the lower court judge, agreeing that Hayden’s claims are time-barred.

3: News Corp Countersues Search Engine Brave for AI Copyright Infringement

Finally today, Alyssa Ray at The Wrap reports that News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, has filed a countersuit against Brave, the privacy-focused search and browser company.

The case stems from a 2025 cease-and-desist letter that News Corp sent Brave over the alleged scraping of News Corp-owned content. According to Brave, it was doing nothing more than what a traditional search engine does, prompting the company to file a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that it is not infringing.

Now News Corp has hit back, filing a countersuit against Brave alleging that the company went well beyond a traditional search engine and that it used News Corp content to train its AI systems and to sell to others. News Corp said it is seeking a permanent injunction, damages and the destruction of relevant databases.

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