Krogerus
May 15, 2014 - Finland
On And Beyond Hyperlinking - Svensson Decision And The Right Of Communication To Public
by Kalle Hynonen
The Nils Svensson v Retriever Sverige AB decision addresses fundamental questions of copyright and Internet use. In essence, the case addresses the question of whether hyperlinking to freely accessible content requires authorization. The original plaintiffs of the Svensson case were Swedish journalists who wrote press articles that were published in the Goteborge-Posten newspaper and on its website, where they were freely accessible. The defendant was a media monitoring company called Retriever Sverige AB, which operates an online service that provides users with lists of clickable links to articles published elsewhere.
The journalists claimed that Retriever was making unauthorized use of their articles by hyperlinking, which according to them constituted communication to public. Moreover, they claimed that it was not apparent to Retriever's users that they were being redirected to another site in order to access the article.
The Stockholm District Court rejected the journalists' claim. The applicants appealed the decision to Svea Court of Appeal, which lodges a reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The questions referred to CJEU can be summarised as follows:
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