Wed, Aug. 08, 2018

Republishing an Internet Photo Without License

CK - Washington. Under German law, a photographer authorized a travel website to publish one of his photos. A student copied the photo and integrated it into a school paper. The school published the paper with the photo on the internet. The photo­gra­pher sued the state for damages under copyright law. On August 7, 2018, the Euro­pe­an Court of Justice in Luxembourg as the final appeal decided the matter under Ger­man law and the E.U. copyright harmonization regulations.

The court found in favor of the plaintiff after the German Federal Supreme Court for Civil Matters in Karlsruhe had referred the matter to it. The fact that the travel website does not restrict visitors will not reduce the right of the copyright owner to control which permissions to attach to his copyrighted work. The republication by the state-run school is unau­tho­ri­zed because every website addresses a new audience. A copyright owner may have a particular audience in mind when granting a license; publication to another audience requires a new license -- at the owner's discretion.

The court distinguished the republication from linking to the original publication. It states that linking is an essential fea­tu­re of the the world wide web. Linking is a fea­tu­re that supports the essential purpose in harmony with copyright law, while co­py­ing and republishing frustrates that harmony, see (a) Press Release Land Nordrhein-Westfalen / Dirk Renckhoff (b) Application and Decision ECLI:EU:C:2018:634.


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