Lending books in digital form on the same basis as in the case of traditional books - judgment of the European Court of Justice

The European Court of Justice, in the judgment of 10th September 2016 (case C-174/15) referred to the issue of lending of a digital copy of a book, where that lending is allowing a user to reproduce that copy by downloading it onto his own computer, bearing in mind that only one copy may be downloaded during the lending period and that, after that period has expired, the downloaded copy can no longer be used by that user.
The Court held that neither WIPO Treaty nor the directive 2006/115 preclude the concept of ‘lending’ from being widely interpreted as also including, aside from tangible copies, certain lending of a digital copy of a book. 

This form of lending shall be treated as the new form of exploitation and the striving to ensure a high level of protection for authors. Simultaneously, the Court underlined that Member States  are allowed to set, where appropriate, additional conditions such as to improve the protection of authors’ rights beyond what is expressly laid down in the provision.
Moreover, the Court held that although the provisions of the directive does not expressly set out any requirement that the source of the copy must be lawful, nevertheless one of the objectives of that directive is to combat piracy. It means that usage of illegal copies clearly run counter to that provision.

For more information, please visit the following website:
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=185250&pageIndex=0&doclang=pl&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=632757