CJEU Zooms In On Framing

CJEU ruling in BestWater International GmbH v. Michael Mebes and Stefan Potsch (C-348/13) (BestWater) that framing content does not constitute copyright infringement 

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has held that framing copyright protected videos is not a copyright infringement, even if the framing occurred without the permission of the copyright owner. In today's tech-savvy world, framing copyright content without the permission of the rights holder is a pervasive feature of internet use, and therefore the CJEU's response to the question of its legality has been highly anticipated.

The facts and background

BestWater International GmbH (BestWater), a company selling water filtrating systems, sued two individuals (Michael Mebes and Stefan Potsch) for uploading BestWater's promotional video (which was already available on YouTube) on their personal websites through framing, without the permission of BestWater.