The Right of Communication to the Public of Works on the Internet in EU Law (Directive 2001/29 v. Directive 2019/790): Is There Any Definable Scope of This Right?

Abstract

This article focuses on the controversy in defining the scope of the right of communication to the public of works provided in Article 3 InfoSoc, especially in the ‘creative’ interpretations made by the CJEU. Based on these considerations, I justify a position qualifying Article 17 DSM, as a provision performing a statutory ‘balancing act’ between the premises determining the scope of the right to communicate a work to the public in the case of online content-sharing service providers. In this view, Article 17 DSM does not modify the concept of making works available to the public, and the premises for the scope of the right from the DSM were already available for ‘interpretation’ based on Article 3 InfoSoc.