How many European lawyers does it take to explain copyright? Start with 28 and add another dozen, because opinions vary. Even a basic project of explaining key copyright issues to EU citizens in 15 Q&As demonstrates that not only is European copyright fragmented into 28 incompatible systems but also that explaining the law is time-consuming and sometimes plainly ridiculous.
The Observatory on IP infringements, a part of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO, formerly OHIM), has bravely undertaken a project of explaining copyright to citizens in all European countries. EUIPO devised a set of 15 questions on the issue with substantial input from its civil society stakeholders. The questions begin at such fundamental inquiries like “what is copyright?” but also encompass daily copyright struggles of Europeans going online such as “can I use a picture of my favorite celebrity as my social media avatar?”.