Publications

EU law does not contain a distinct set of rules seeking to regulate various types of streaming services. Instead, the harmonized rules governing streaming services follow from individual pieces of EU legislation – ranging from rules on online broadcasting to a specific liability regime for platforms allowing users to upload and share content – and decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’). The following analysis, first, provides an overview of the exclusive rights that must be taken into account in streaming scenarios. This discussion also addresses the exemption of temporary acts of copying that may cover the reception of streaming content by users (section 2). Rights clearance questions occupy centre stage in sections 3 (general services, such as Netflix) and 4 (platforms for user-generated content (‘UGC’), such as YouTube). Section 5 raises the issue of content filtering obligations in the specific legal regime for on-demand streaming of content uploaded by users. Section 6 takes a closer look at copyright limitations that may become relevant in streaming cases, including private copying rules and the exemption of quotations, parodies and pastiches. Section 7 explains the remarkable extension of the concept of ‘communication to the public’ to the provision of streaming equipment for illegal content and infrastructures for illegal file-sharing. It also examines the legal framework for website blocking. In section 8, the results of the analysis will be summarized.