CJEU Ruling in Pinckney v Mediatech: Jurisdiction in Online Copyright Infringement Cases Depends on the Accessibility of Website Content

摘要

In Pinckney v KDG Mediatech AG, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on October 3, 2013 on the question of online cross-border copyright infringement. It considered that courts of Member States in which copyright works were protected and in which the "harmful event" had occurred, or might occur, were competent to determine liability and damage caused in that territory. The court ruled that there was a likelihood of the harmful event arising in a territory where it was possible to obtain infringing copies of works from websites accessible in that territory. The CJEU considered that the relevant question for determining where the harmful event took place was to ask whether copies of copyright works were made accessible online in the Member State of the court seised rather than ask whether the activity of a website was "directed to" the Member State of the court seised.