In a recent decision (C-160/15 of September 8, 2016), the European Court of Justice had to deal with the question of whether the setting of hyperlinks on the Internet constitutes an unlawful “communication to the public” if the linked website contains unauthorized copyrighted content to be published.

In this decision, the ECJ made a distinction for the first time between people who act without the intention of making a profit – typically private individuals – and those who act with the intention of making a profit and it requires the latter, i.e. entrepreneurs, to carefully examine all linked content, otherwise it is a copyright infringement merely sets hyperlinks, i.e. does not provide any content itself, is assumed.
You can find further details in our current newsletter.

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