CJEU Decides On Re-Posting Of Protected Content

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.