Prof. Dr. Christian Czychowski and Viktoria Kraetzig represented VG Bild-Kunst before the Grand Chamber of the CJEU in the preliminary ruling proceedings against Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek on the admissibility of framing under copyright law. The oral hearing had taken place last May as the first hearing after the lockdown again before the CJEU.
Following the BGH’s referral decision of 25 April 2019, Case No. I ZR 113/18, the CJEU had to deal with the question of how so-called framing is to be assessed under copyright law for the first time after the much-discussed Svensson, Best Water, GS Media and Renckhoff decisions. Does framing affect the right of communication to the public, can the rights holders therefore control this and, in the specific case, can VG Bild-Kunst demand that its contractual partners apply technical protective measures against framing? Because without such technical protection measures, the rights holders are at the mercy of the further exploitation of an object of protection on the internet without protection thanks to digitalization.
The CJEU has today presented its answer to this: According to the CJEU, framing by circumventing technical protection measures constitutes communication to the public within the meaning of the InfoSoc Directive. We are very pleased that the court has ruled in favour of our client. This is an important step for rights holders and a further clarification of the digital use of copyrighted material.
The decision is a landmark for the copyright assessment of framing.
