My thesis on linking and framing has been
published in February. The thesis (written in German) is also available
online (532 pages). The website http://www.linksandlaw.de
features many new articles about linking and framing and also has a new
layout.
1. First Report on the
application of the E-Commerce-Directive
The E-Commerce
Directive does not specifically deal with the liability for providers of
hyperlinks. But according to Article 21 of the Directive, the Commission
shall submit to the European Parliament, the Council and the Economic and Social
Committee a report on the application of this Directive before 17 July 2003, and
thereafter every two years. In examining the need for an adaptation of this
Directive, the report shall in particular analyse the need for proposals
concerning the liability of providers of hyperlinks and location tool services,
"notice and take down" procedures and the attribution of liability
following the taking down of content.
The first report on the
application of the E-Commerce directive adresses the issue of liability for
hyperlinks. The report states:
In addition to
the matters dealt with by Articles 12-14, some Member States 68 decided to
provide for limitations on the liability of providers of hyperlinks and search
engines.69 This was motivated by the wish to create incentives for investment
and innovation and enhance the development of e-commerce by providing additional
legal clarity for service providers. Whilst it was not considered necessary to
cover hyperlinks and search engines in the Directive, the Commission has
encouraged Member States to further develop legal security for internet
in-termediaries. It is encouraging that recent case-law in the Member States
recognizes the importance of linking and search engines to the functioning of
the internet. In general, this case-law appears to be in line with the Internal
Market objective to ensure the provision of basic intermediary services, which
promotes the development of the internet and e-commerce. Consequently, this
case-law does not appear to give rise to any Internal Market concerns 70 .
In a few cases 71
national courts have already interpreted the Directive. However, in these cases,
the national implementing measures of the Directive had not yet been adopted in
the States concerned.
There is still
very little practical experience on the application of Articles 12-14, but the
feedback received so far from the Member States and interested parties has, in
general, been positive. The approach taken in the Directive appears to have wide
reaching support among stakeholders. In any case the Commission will, in
accordance with Article 21, continue to monitor and rigorously analyse any new
developments, including national legislation, case-law and administrative
practices related to intermediary liability and will examine any future need to
adapt the present framework in the light of these developments, for instance the
need of additional limitations on liability for other activities such as the
provision of hyperlinks and search engines.72
68 Spain, Austria and EEA-State Liechtenstein and
Portugal in its draft law.
69 Spain and Portugal have opted for the model of
Article 14 both for search engines and hyperlinks, whereas Austria and
Liechtenstein have opted for the model of Article 12 for search engines and of
Article 14 for hyperlinks.
70 For example in France TGI Paris, référé, 12
mai 2003, Lorie c/M. G.S. et SA Wanadoo Portails, in Germany in the case
Verlagsgruppe Handeslblatt v. Paperboy, aus dem Bundesgerichtshof (BGH), Urteil
vom 17. Juli 2003 – I ZR 259/00.
71 Cases Deutsche Bahn v. XS4ALL, judgement by
Gerechtshof te Amsterdam (Court of Appeals), 762/02 SKG, of 7.11.2002, and
Deutsche Bahn v. Indymedia, judgement by Rechtbank Amsterdam (District Court),
KG 02/1073, of 20.6.2002, in the Netherlands (judgements available at http://www.rechtspraak.nl);
and Case Public Prosecutor v. Tele2 in the EEA-country Norway, judgement by
Borgarting Lagmannsrett (Court of Appeals), 02-02539 M/01, of 27.6.2003. Tele2
was acquitted when the public prosecutor dropped charges against it.
72 The approach of the Member States who opted to
legislate on the hyperlinks and search engines does not seem to give rise to a
risk of fragmentation of the Internal Market. The Commission is, however,
actively following work in Member States relating to liability issues such as
the fundamental work carried out by "Le Forum des droits sur l'Internet"
in France, which has published recommendations on hyperlinks called "Hyperliens:
Statut Juridique", published 3.3.2003, and "Quelle responsabilité
pour les créateurs d'hyperliens vers des contenus illicites, published
23.10.2003, both available at http://www.foruminternet.org/recommandations/.
Footnote 70 mentiones a
verdict in the dispute between Handelsblatt and Paperboy. This case was not
about liability for linking to illegal material. The case was about legality
of deep linking in Germany.
In the USA,
South
Africa, Austria
and Spain
the liability for linking to illegal material is regulated by law.
E-Commerce
Directive = Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services,
in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market ('Directive on
electronic commerce')
First
Report on the application of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament
and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information
society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal
Market (Directive on electronic commerce); Brussels, 21.11.2003; COM(2003) 702 final
Erster
Bericht über die Anwendung der Richtlinie 2000/31/EG des Europäischen Parlaments und des Rates vom 8. Juni 2000
über bestimmte rechtliche Aspekte der Dienste
der Informationsgesellschaft, insbesondere des elektronischen Geschäftsverkehrs,
im Binnenmarkt (Richtlinie über
den elektronischen Geschäftsverkehr)
2. Search Engines in the News:
a. February 2004 (Articles
in English)
February 27, 2004: Google's Page "dismayed" by IPO speculations,
ZDNet:
"No definitive statements have been made about a
public offering, according to Google's co-founder."
February 20, 2004: Oceana
Campaign to Get Ads back on Google, Search Engine Journal:
"Oceana has launched an online awareness and action campaign to get their
anti-Royal Caribbean ads placed back into Google AdWords searches for the
cruise line with the controversial sewage treatment system."
February 17, 2004: Liedtke, Michael,
Google
ads a billion more pages, MSNBC News: "Online search engine leader Google Inc. added an additional 1 billion pages
to its Web index Tuesday, increasing its breadth by about one-third as it
girds for tougher competition from Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp."
February 5, 2004: Hedger, Jim:
Search
Engine Wars: MSN + Google = Netscape, Internet Search Engine Database: "The search engine war between Google and MSN is generating some nasty
tactics reminiscent of the Microsoft vs. Netscape battle of the mid
'90's."
February 5, 2004: Pearce, James,
Google
swamps Australian university's server, ZDNet: "The astronomy
department of Swinbourne University suffered an effective denial-of-service
attack after Google spotlighted mathematician Gaston Julia's birthday."
February 3, 2004:
Google
voted best brand, BBC News: "Internet search engine Google was the top brand of 2003, a survey of
4,000 branding professionals has concluded."
February 3, 2004: Thibodeau, Serge,
The
latest on update Austin, Internet Search Engine Database: "Some of the websites that haven’t been hit too hard in Google’s
Florida update (November 2003) got hit real hard on or around January 23.
Google’s latest update is called “Austin”, and they are beginning to
‘sound’ like elections…"
b. February 2004 (Articles
in German)
February 27, 2004: Klage
wegen Google-Toolbar, intern.de:
"Netjumper, ein kleines Software-Unternehmen aus Michigan, hat ein
gerichtliches Verfahren gegen Google eingeleitet. Die Suchmaschine soll ein
Software-Patent des Unternehmens verletzt und dadurch Schaden zugefügt
haben."
February 27, 2004: Google-Gründer
auf Forbes-Liste, intern.de:
"Voreilig beziehungsweise vorsorglich hat das Forbes-Magazin zwei neue
"Milliardäre" in seine Liste der reichsten Leute dieser Erde
aufgenommen: Die beiden ehemaligen Stanford-Studenten und Google-Gründer
Sergey Brin (31) und Larry Page (31)."
February 24, 2004: Google
bei US-Bürgern am beliebtesten, Heise:
"Die Suchmaschine Google wurde im Januar in den USA rund 59 Millionen mal
besucht."
February 18, 2004: Fiutak, Martin, Google
baut Suchindex um ein Drittel aus, ZDNet:
"Google hat die Register seiner Suchmaschine auf über sechs
Milliarden Einträge ausgeweitet."
February 18, 2004: Yahoo
sucht wieder alleine, derStandard.at:
"Seit Mittwoch sucht Yahoo wieder alleine: Wie das Unternehmen bekannt
gab, wird ab sofort die Yahoo-eigene Suchtechnik "Yahoo Search
Technology" zum Einsatz kommen. Damit verabschiedet sich das
Unternehmen von dem bisherigen Partner Google."
February 17, 2004: Google
streicht Werbung von Umweltschutzgruppe, derStandard.at:
"Die Betreiber der Suchmaschine Google haben eine Werbeanzeige der
Umweltschutzgruppe Oceana von ihren Ergebnislisten verbannt, weil diese sich
gegen die Verschmutzung der Meere durch Kreuzfahrtschiffe wendet."
February 16, 2004: Krüger,
Alfred, Zensur
bei Google?, Telepolis:
"Google lehnt Werbeanzeigen von Umweltschützern ab."
February 11, 2004: Google:
AdWords jetzt auch auf chinesisch, de.internet.com:
"Der Suchmaschinenbetreiber Google will sein AdWords-Programm ab heute auch
in chinesischer Sprache anbieten."
February 5, 2004: Janet
schlägt 9/11 - Rekordsuchanfrage bei Google, silicon.de:
"Janet Jackson ist die Nummer eins in den Charts.
Allerdings diesmal nicht bei MTV oder VIVA sondern bei Google. Das 'Superbowl-Malheur'
der Popsängerin sprengte innerhalb von 24 Stunden alle je dar gewesenen
Suchrekorde."
February 5, 2004: Von
Google überrannt, Intern.de:
"Etwas zuviel des Guten war der von Google eingerichtete Gedenktag für
den französischen Mathematiker Gaston Maurice Julia (geb. 3. Februar 1893),
der die Formel für die sogenannten Julia-Fraktale untersuchte."
February 4, 2004: Google-Konkurrenz
von Microsoft im Beta-Test, Chip Online:
"Microsoft tritt mit einer Betaversion seines MSN Search gegen die
Dienste von Google und Yahoo an."
February 4, 2004: Google
gegen Booble, MarkenPlatz:
"Denn wo Name und Design der
Booble-Suchmaschine dem von Google verdächtig ähnlich sind, unterscheidet
sich das inhaltliche Angebot beträchtlich. Wer boobelt statt zu googeln,
erhält ausschließlich Pornografie-Seiten als Treffer."
February 2, 2004: Google verschiebt inoffiziellen
Börsentermin, silcion.de:
"Die Spekulationen über einen möglichen Börsengang
des Suchmaschinen-Betreibers Google haben einen Dämpfer bekommen. Gegenüber
der Zeit und The Times erklärte Eric Schmidt, CEO von Google, dass in der nächsten
Zukunft nichts derartiges geplant sei: "Ein IPO (Initial Public
Offering) steht derzeit nicht in meinem Terminkalender."
February 2, 2004: Google
in der Booble Falle, Stern.de:
"Booble macht gar keinen Hehl daraus, eine "lustige Parodie der größten
und bekanntesten Suchmaschine der Welt" sein zu wollen. Doch den sonst
als humorvoll bekannten Googlern bleibt das Lachen im Halse stecken, denn
Booble ist eine Schmutz-Suchmaschine - und damit will Google nichts zu tun
haben."
New in Legal
Resources:
Ott Stephan, Urheber- und
wettbewerbsrechtliche Probleme von Linking und Framing, Diss. 2004
Sebastian Geiseler-Bonse, Internet-Suchmaschinen als rechtliches Problemfeld
: Die rechtliche Beurteilung von Meta-tags, Keyword Advertisements und Paid
Listings, Diss.
Burmeister in Weitnauer (Hrsg.),
Beck'sches Formularbuch E-Commerce, Linking-Vertrag, 207-215, 2003