Hyperlinking Is Legal!!!!!

A panel of prominent scholars and academics have added their voices to an important case that was referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The paper published by the European Copyright Society aims to answer the question of whether publishing a hyperlink to content amounts to a communication to the public and therefore a breach of the creator’s copyright under European law.

One of the roles of the Court of Justice is to interpret EU law to ensure that it’s applied in the same manner across all EU member countries. The Court can also be called upon by national courts to interpret finer points of EU law.

A case referred to the CJEU by Sweden’s Court of Appeal is definitely one to watch, as the outcome has the potential to affect the very structure of the Internet.

The case involves a Swedish journalist called Svensson who wrote an article which was subsequently published by a Swedish newspaper both in print and on the newspaper’s website. Svensson’s dispute is with Retriever Sverige AB, a subscription service that supplies links to articles that can be found online.

Svensson said that by providing links to his article, Retriever was communicating his work or making it available to the public without permission and for this he should be compensated.

Retriever refused to pay Svensson any money. Merely linking to a copyright work and displaying the resulting content within a frame did not constitute infringement, the company argued.

found here - http://torrentfreak.com/hyperlinking-is-not-copyright-infringement-scholars-say-130218/