Headlines and hyperlinks: UK copyright law post-Infopaq

Abstract

At the time of the decision of the European Court of Justice in Infopaq , copyright scholars wondered what the eventual impact of the decision would be on UK law under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA). With the decision of the High Court in Newspaper Licensing Agency v Meltwater, we have the first indication of how the decision in Infopaq has the potential to influence decisions of the UK courts. In this regard, the relevant points articulated in Infopaq must be recalled before the present case is examined. These points are as follows: First, the originality standard for subsistence of all works is based around the idea of the author’s ‘intellectual creation’. Secondly, even an extract of 11 words could amount to an example of copyright infringement, if these 11 words are a reflection of the intellectual creation of the author. Thirdly, the European Court of Justice stressed that the ‘exceptions’ to copyright, as contained in the Information Society directive, must be interpreted narrowly. This case review examines Meltwater in light of these three crucial elements.