CJEU: UNAUTHORIZED REPOSTING CAN BE INFRINGEMENT

8-August-2018

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) published yesterday a landmark decision on copyright matters, Renckhoff, C-161/17.

In this particular case, a school website posted a photograph taken from a student project, that was in its turn obtained from a third website where the picture was freely accessible. German courts referred the matter of whether the inclusion of a work — which is freely accessible to all internet users on a third-party website with the consent of the copyright holder — on a person’s own publicly accessible website could constitute infringement to the CJEU. The Court has confirmed that the author must consent every reposting, as it is a new Communication to the public. This decision is very positive for copyright holders and is in contrast with the case with links to third parties, that doesn’t need any authorization.

Read the decision here