Striking a fair balance between the protection of creative content and the need to foster its dissemination : The challenges posed by Internet linking and meta search engines

In recent years, the ability to make available, locate and access copyright protected content over the Internet has increased considerably. Some business models are directly aimed at linking or locating content already made available by other services. Such business models may create value for end users by making it easier to locate and find content on the Internet, but at the same time, they may be deemed to appropriate value from the rightholders or their service providers. In some cases, this has led to tensions and even litigations between the providers of these new business models and the rightholders or their service providers. These tensions are reflections of the underlying policy concerns inherent in the field of copyright law on the necessity to strike a fair balance between the protection of creative content and measures to foster its dissemination. This article will discuss, analyse and draw conclusions from two recent cases from the Court of Justice of the European Union on Internet linking and meta search engines, Svensson and Others and Innoweb, and relate them to the underlying policy concerns in copyright law