欧盟版权指令第15条之评价与反思:以超链接规制为视角

欧盟现有法律对于超链接的侵权管制过于严格,这种做法没有平衡公共利益和著作权人的利益,造成了对著作权的过度保护.虽然最终通过的《数字化单一市场著作权指令》第15条规定新闻出版媒体的邻接权规则不适用于超链接行为,但是这并未从根本上解决对超链接的著作权规制过严问题.为了促进互联网上信息的自由流通以及用户的表达自由,法官应当对超链接提供者与网络平台的侵权责任进行区分,并且仅在超链接导致侵权结果时对链接提供者进行追责.

Article 15 of the EU's New Copyright Directive from the Perspective of Hyperlinking:Evaluation and Reflection

The existing legal practice on hyperlinking in the EU is so strict that it fails to balance the interests of the public and copyright holders,leading to over-protection of copyright.Although Article 15(1)of the final ver-sion of the European Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market explicitly provides that the press pub-lisher's rights do not apply to hyperlinking,it does not fundamentally solve the problem of excessive copyright regulation of hyperlinks.In order to promote the free flow of information on the internet and users'freedom of ex-pression,judges should distinguish between direct and indirect liability,and rights holders must show that the hy-perlink provided by the defendant is an act of infringement before taking legal action.