On 7 August 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) has released another judgment (surprisingly its first copyright judgment of 2018) on the interpretation of the right of communication to the public (case no. C-161/17 – “Judgment”). The CJEU held that the unauthorised re-posting of copyright protected works may constitute an act of communication to the public under Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29/EC (InfoSoc Directive).

Facts

The fact pattern was very specific. A copyright protected photograph of the city of Cordoba was uploaded to an online travel portal with the consent of the photographer. The photo was freely accessible without any restrictive measures preventing it from being downloaded. A student downloaded the photograph and used it for a written assignment, which was then uploaded to the school’s website.

The photographer brought the underlying main proceedings before the German courts claiming copyright infringement. The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) referred the case to the CJEU and asked whether the posting on one website of a photograph that has been previously published without restriction and with the consent of the right holder on another website qualifies as communication to the public.

Opinion of the Advocate General

The Advocate General Sánchez-Bordona (“AG”) took the view that the use of the photograph in this case does not infringe the right of communication to the public. He argued that both the school’s website and the online travel portal addressed the same general internet public. Considering that the original upload was accessible without technical restrictions or a copyright notice, the AG concluded that internet users could assume the right holder does not object to further uploads of the work.

The AG suggested a ‘notice and takedown’ procedure in which right holders have to actively opt out of the use of protected works by means of downloading and uploading.Continue Reading CJEU decides on re-posting of protected content