INTERNET FRAMING AND COMMUNICATION TO THE PUBLIC

#14Internet framing and communication to the public

Court of Justice of the European Union, by judgment in Case C 392/19, VG Bild Kunst v Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, interpreted Article 3 (1). 1 of Directive 2001/29 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society.

The case concerned the circumvention of the author's public broadcast protection measures, by means of the framing technique, which the author required to implement when granting a license to use his work. Framing means the insertion of the author's work, in this case, a communication to the public (imagine playing a video), on a third party's website, where the work is consequently freely accessible to the public. For example, playing a YouTube video on a  webpage different than YouTube.

Author is entitled to use protective measures for the public transmission of the work. But, if technical measures are circumvented, framing, as an unauthorized intermediation of such a transfer, infringes the author's rights.

Important aspect of the ruling is the conditions at which contractual restrictions to linking can be imposed. The Court of Justice of the European Union was explicit in saying that consent can be only limited by adopting technological measures.