ARTICLE
1 September 2014

Internet Users Breathe A Sigh Of Relief As European Court Rules That Internet Browsing Does Not Infringe Copyright

M
Matheson

Contributor

Established in 1825 in Dublin, Ireland and with offices in Cork, London, New York, Palo Alto and San Francisco, more than 700 people work across Matheson’s six offices, including 96 partners and tax principals and over 470 legal and tax professionals. Matheson services the legal needs of internationally focused companies and financial institutions doing business in and from Ireland. Our clients include over half of the world’s 50 largest banks, 6 of the world’s 10 largest asset managers, 7 of the top 10 global technology brands and we have advised the majority of the Fortune 100.
If you are reading this on an internet browser you may be relieved to know that you are not infringing copyright law.
Ireland Intellectual Property

If you are reading this on an internet browser you may be relieved to know that you are not infringing copyright law. Thanks to the recent Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decision in Public Relations Consultants Association Ltd v Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd, internet users who view copyright protected material online through content aggregators (like Google News or Lexology) do not require a licence to view such material provided they do not download or print a copy of it.

The CJEU held that users who view material online and as a result make temporary copies of it on their screen and hard drives benefit from "the temporary copying" exemption under EU Law. Making temporary copies of material viewed online was said by the Court to be an essential part of internet browsing which does not violate copyright owners' legitimate interests.

The decision has obvious implications for content aggregators and their users. While printing or downloading a copyright protected work will infringe copyright, merely viewing it online will not (provided it is legally put online in the first place). The decision means that ordinary internet browsing of content aggregator sites does not require a licence from copyright holders because the temporary copying exemption applies. This is a relief for internet users and content providers alike and the case was watched intensely by the industry. If the CJEU had decided the case the other way, millions of internet users could be infringing copyright simply by browsing the internet.

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