Brussels, 12/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - If a copyright holder for a picture gives his or her consent for the image to be marketed in the form of a poster, he or she retains the right to monitor the distribution of the reproduction if it is sold in another form from that which was initially agreed and if it led to a substantial amendment to the initial material form, said a European Court of Justice judge in conclusions published on Thursday 11 September.
The case in question, C-419/13, sees a Dutch company for the management of copyright (Pictoright) clash with a company marketing copies of its artists' works in the form of posters and other reproductions (Allposters). The other reproductions include a special process for transferring an image from a poster to a canvas, which causes the image to dematerialise from the poster itself. Allposters did not ask for consent from copyright holders for the sale of these reproductions on canvas, and Pictoright therefore asked for the Court of Justice to put an end to the sale of this type of product.
The Court of Justice will be asked to answer the following question: When an authorised reproduction (a paper poster) is sold once and is then transformed by being transferred to a canvas and then put on sale again, does the exclusive distribution as defined in the EU Copyright Directive 2001/29 run out? In other words, can the holder of copyright for an image oppose the sale of his work in a different form from that for which he gave his consent?
Judge Cruz Villalon gives a two-pronged answer. Firstly, he states that the transfer of an image from a poster to a canvas does not alter the original image, which is fully reproduced. He adds that the medium has changed and for this reason the Copyright Directive shall apply, which stipulates that the right of exclusive distribution runs out when the ownership of the object, in other words the physical material, is transferred. In the case in question, Villalon says that the physical material was modified to a sufficient extent to ensure that the distribution right still applied. The sale of a canvas by Allposters is different from the sale of a poster for which it has paid the sales fee and therefore Pictoright should keep control over the sale of these canvas reproductions. (JK)