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In a notable judgment concerning preventive censorship and broadcasting, on 17 August 2017, the District Court of Midden-Nederland ruled that the Dutch public broadcasting association BNN/VARA may broadcast an episode of the YouTube documentary show #BOOS (Dutch for “angry”). The show aims to solve consumer complaints, mostly from young people. In the episode in question, the presenter confronted a landlord with complaints from his student tenants. The confrontation resulted in a fight which left the presenter suffering from a broken jaw. The landlord requested an injunction to prevent the documentary...

On 12 May 2017, the District Court of Amsterdam ruled that not only serious media, but also media of an ironic nature can rely upon the quotation exception to copyright. The case concerned a Dutch news website, 925.nl, which publishes ironic articles. In one of these articles, the website discussed the takeover of Sapph Intimates B.V., a lingerie webshop that went bankrupt in 2011 and that used the claimant’s photograph of the former Olympic swimmer Inge de Bruijn in swimwear on their poster. The poster with the claimant’s photograph was therefore also shown in the ironic article by the news website....

On 14 June 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment in Stichting Brein v. Ziggo BV (Case C-610/15). The Court held that the making available and management of an online sharing platform (such as The Pirate Bay (TPB)) should be considered as an act of communication to the public for the purposes of Directive 2001/29 (the EU Copyright Directive). The proceedings began in January 2012, when the District Court of The Hague ordered two Dutch internet access providers (Ziggo and XS4ALL) to block access to TPB. Stichting Brein, a foundation protecting the interests...

On 28 February 2017, the District Court of Amsterdam dismissed a complaint by the newly-founded political party Forum voor Democratie (Forum for Democracy - FvD) against the public broadcaster NOS for not being invited to participate in the election debates that NOS organised and broadcast. The Court held that NOS acted in accordance with the Mediawet (Dutch Media Act), that it did not abuse its journalistic freedom, and had not unjustly restricted FvD’s right to political expression nor acted unlawfully in any other way. NOS organised a radio and television election debate that took place on 24...

On 26 April 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment in Stichting Brein v. Wullems, concerning the sale of multimedia players which enable easy access to illegal audiovisual content on the Internet. The case arose in 2014, when Stichting Brein, the Dutch foundation for copyright holders, brought a court action against Mr. Jack Wullems to prevent him from selling certain media players, including on his own website, www.filmspeler.nl. The media players, when connected to the Internet and a television, are able to stream audiovisual material from the Internet....