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Mr Dirk Renckhoff, a photographer, authorised the operators of a travel website to publish one of his photographs on their website. A pupil at a secondary school in Land North Rhein-Westphalia in Germany (Gesamtshcule de Waltrop) downloaded that photograph from the travel website (on which it was freely accessible) in order to illustrate a school presentation. It was then published on the school website.

Mr Renckhoff brought an action against the Land North Rhein-Westphalia before the German courts seeking an order prohibiting the reproduction of his photograph. He also claims damages of €400.

Mr Renckhoff claims that he gave a right of use only to the operators of the travel website and that the posting of the photograph on the school website is an infringement of his copyright.

In that context, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice, Germany) asks the Court of Justice to interpret the Copyright Directive, 1 according to which the author of a work has the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit any communication to the public of that work. 

The Bundesgerichtshof wishes to know whether the concept of ‘communication to the public’ covers the posting on a website of a photograph which has been previously published on another website without any restrictions preventing it from being downloaded and with the consent of the copyright holder.

Click here for full press release

 

Original article link: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2018-08/cp180123en.pdf

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