CJEU Decision In Meltwater – The Internet Is Saved, Browsing Does Not Require A Licence

The CJEU today handed down its judgment in the Meltwater case, Public Relations Consultants Association Ltd (PRCA) v The Newspaper Licensing Agency Limited and Others (NLA), holding that on-screen and cached copies of websites generated by end-users in the course of browsing may be made without the authorisation of copyright holders.

Background

Meltwater provided an online media monitoring service called Meltwater News. Subscribers to the service were sent emails containing the headlines of online articles, hyperlinks to the articles' publishers' websites and short extracts of the articles themselves. The NLA brought proceedings for copyright infringement against Meltwater and PRCA who represented UK public relations providers who used Meltwater News. The NLA claimed that the end-users of the service required a licence to receive it as, through ordinary use of the service, on-screen and cached copies of works in which copyright subsisted would be made on