Intellectual privacy: A fortress for the individual user?

The digital environment poses numerous challenges to online copyright enforcement. The enforcement measures taken by copyright holders, intermediaries and public authorities might threaten the protection of fundamental rights of the individual, such as privacy and data protection. The concept of «intellectual privacy» potentially creates a framework, within which an individual can enjoy the fruits of creative acts online. It encompasses the protection of individual data concerning one's intellectual consumption and exploration, on one side, and the spatial, temporal and other circumstances pertaining to the freedom to enjoy copyrighted works, on the other side. In this paper, I will explore these various facets of intellectual privacy in its relation to copyright, by getting inspiration from the research conducted by US scholars on the topic. Since the concept was developed in the US, in order to see how the context would operate in the European environment, a necessary step would be to put it in the European legal context, taking particular account of already existing rights, such as privacy, protection of personal data, freedom of expression and information. These reflections prove that intellectual privacy -an embodiment of freedom of expression, privacy and data protection- is a relevant concept. Its instrumentality is determined by the fact that it can be used as a legal tool to shape a private space in the digital environment, within which an individual can enjoy and share copyright-protected content.