CJEU: ‘reproductions on any medium’, covers the saving by the provider of a cloud computing service.
13-01-2023 Print this page
Case C-433/20: Austro-Mechana v Strato. Request for a preliminary ruling from the Oberlandesgericht Wien.
The expression ‘reproductions on any medium’, referred to in that provision, covers the saving for private purposes by the provider of a cloud computing service. National legislation that does not make the providers of storage services in the context of cloud computing subject to the payment of fair compensation is not precluded, in so far as that legislation provides for the payment of fair compensation to the rightholders.
The limitation that can be imposed under the Copyright Directive on the reproduction right of authors insofar as their work is copied for private use also applies when a copy of a protected work is stored in the cloud for private purposes. Rightholders should receive fair compensation, which should not necessarily be paid by cloud computing service providers.
Court of Justice of the European Union:
1. Article 5(2)(b) of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society must be interpreted as meaning that the expression ‘reproductions on any medium’, referred to in that provision, covers the saving, for private purposes, of copies of works protected by copyright on a server in which storage space is made available to a user by the provider of a cloud computing service.
2. Article 5(2)(b) of Directive 2001/29 must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation that has transposed the exception referred to in that provision and that does not make the providers of storage services in the context of cloud computing subject to the payment of fair compensation in respect of the unauthorised saving of copies of copyright-protected works by natural persons, who are users of those services, for private use and for ends that are neither directly nor indirectly commercial, in so far as that legislation provides for the payment of fair compensation to the rightholders.
IPPT20220324,CJEU, Austro-Mechana v Strato
