The Netherlands - Electronic clipping service infringes upon publishers’ copyright

Amsterdam District Court, September 4th 2002 (Het Financieele Dagblad et al v Euroclip et al)

The Amsterdam District Court has given its much-anticipated judgment on copyright and so-called ‘clipping services’. It ruled that Euroclip’s electronic clipping service infringes upon the copyright of publishers of several newspapers and magazines and cannot benefit from the copyright restriction that reproduction by the press is permitted under certain conditions. In making that assessment, the court attached great weight to the commercial character of the clipping service. The judgment is an interesting addition to the Supreme Court’s decision of November 10, 1995 in which a ‘paper’ clipping service was found not to infringe upon copyright. It furthermore contains notable considerations with regard to database rights.