Gerechtshof Amsterdam [Court of Appeals Amsterdam], Civil law, GS Media v. Sanoma, ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2013:4019

Document type
Court Decision
Country
The case is about leaked nude photographs of Dutch television-personality Britt Dekker that had yet to appear in Playboy magazine. An unknown person had stored the photographs online with Filefactory’s hosting service. Dutch entertainment website Geenstijl had posted a link to the file containing the photographs. The Court of Appeals of Amsterdam held that linking to copyright-protected material that is available on the web elsewhere is no different from a footnote referring to earlier published works. In principle, linking to copyright-protected works on the web does not communicate those works to the public and does not constitute a copyright infringement. This may be different if the works were untraceable and inaccessible to the public before the intervention. Although Geenstijl was not held liable for copyright infringement, Geenstijl was held liable under tort law for facilitating access to the leaked photographs.
Country
Year
2013
Topic, claim, or defense
Copyright
Other
Document type
Court Decision
Issuing entity
Appellate Domestic Court
Type of service provider
Host (Including Social Networks)
Issues addressed
Trigger for OSP obligations
Type of law
Civil
General effect on immunity
Weakens Immunity
General intermediary liability model
Takedown/Act Upon Knowledge (Includes Notice and Takedown)