The Institute for Information Law (http://www.ivir.nl) at the University of Amsterdam has reported that The European Copyright Society, a group of prominent European scholars, has issued an opinion on the Svensson case ( Case C-466/12), which is currently before the European Court of Justice.
The case, which was referred to the Court by the Swedish Court of Appeal (Svea hovrätt) on 18 October 2012, raises the important question whether setting a hyperlink to a copyright protected work amounts to “communication to the public” within the meaning of the Information Society Directive. In a detailed, 17-page opinion the European Copyright Society argues that the answer to this question should be a resounding no.
The European Copyright Society (ECS) was founded in January 2012 with the aim of creating a platform for critical and independent scholarly thinking on European Copyright Law. Its members are renowned scholars and academics from various countries of Europe, seeking to promote their views of the overall public interest. Read the opinion here: Opinion on The Reference to the CJEU in Case C-466/12 Svensson, 15 February 2013, European Copyright Society.
