The VCAST decision: how to turn a private copying case into a case about communication/making available to the public
Earlier today this blog reported that, a few months after Advocate General (AG) Szpunar released his Opinion in VCAST , C-265/16 [ here ] , the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has now released its decision . As readers know, this was a reference from Italy (Turin Court of First Instance) that one would have thought [as the questions were indeed about it!] to concern the understanding and application of the private copying exception within Article 5(2)(b) of the InfoSoc Directive to cloud-based video-recording services. Well, although the AG Opinion is indeed about this, the CJEU judgment is not. The Court, in fact, made the case about the right of communication/making available to the public within Article 3 of the InfoSoc Directive. Let’s start then and see why VCAST is not really – or at least is no longer - a case about the private copying exception. Background ...