Linking To Content Made Freely Available Does Not Infringe Copyright

In an eagerly awaited ruling handed down on 13 February 2014 the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has decided that the owner of a website may, without the authorisation of the copyright holders, hyperlink to copyright-protected content that is "freely accessible" on another website. This is so even if someone who clicks on the link will have the impression that the work is appearing on the site that contains the link. The CJEU held that for an act of communication to the public to infringe copyright, the communication must be directed to a "new" public. The CJEU added that when a clickable link makes it possible for internet users to circumvent systems on a site that restrict access to the content to the site's subscribers, "all those users must be deemed to be a new public [and] the holders' authorisation is required for such a communication to the public".