CJUE – Judgment of 13.02.2014, Svensson and Others, Case C-466/12 – «Reference for a preliminary ruling – Approximation of laws – Copyright and related rights – Directive 2001/29/EC – Information society – Harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and

Abstract

This article analyzes the Decision dated on 13.02.2014 (C-466/12) where the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) deals with Internet links which connect to another website containing content of free access but protected by copyright. The CJEU understands that it´s legal considering that there are not new audiences, so that the link does not constitute an act of communication to the public and, therefore, does not require any permission from the authors. The recipients of the original public communication were all the potential users of the webpage, because of all Internet users could freely access to that webpage and they knew that the access to the works on that webpage was not subject to any restrictive measures. Accordingly, as the public wasn´t new, it was not required any approval nor authorization and, therefore, there was no copyright infringement. The Court considers irrelevant that the webpage of the defendants did not specify that the information came from another webpage. However, it would be an infringement if the webpage avoid the restrictive measures taken by the page containing the protected work. However, we think that some grounds of the Court’s judgment clearly contravene the Directive 2001/29/EC, due the link does not transmit the work, it just informs about the place where the work is. Without transmission of the work, there is not act of communication.