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Europe To Make Linking To Other Websites ‘Illegal’
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy
The European Commission is preparing to target people who hyperlink on the internet, forcing search engines and news portals to pay media companies for linking to their content.
According to a draft communication on copyright reform leaked this week, the Commission is considering putting the simple act of linking to content under copyright protection.
Thomasdishaw.com reports:
Each weblink would become a legal landmine and would allow press publishers to hold every single actor on the Internet liable.
Ancillary Copyright Law reloaded: A new path towards the old goal
In the draft at hand, the Commission bemoans a lack of clarity about which actions on the Internet need a permission and which ones do not: in legal terms, they put forward the question when something is an ‘act of communication to the public’.
This is a reference to a ruling of the European Court of Justice in the Svensson case. While on one hand the judges established that the simple act of linking to publicly available content is no copyright infringement, because it does not reach a new public, a few questions were left open bis this ruling, however: For example when exactly content can be seen as accessible by the public and how e.g. links surpassing paywalls are to be treated.
Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk
Source: http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=5232
