Dutch court rules linking to photos is copyright infringement

Website faces $36,000 fine for linking to nude pictures of reality star.

by Timothy B. Lee

A Dutch court has ruled that the website GeenStijl infringed copyright by linking to unauthorized copies of nude pictures of reality star Britt Dekker. The pictures originally appeared in the Dutch version of Playboy magazine.

According to the Associated Press, the website has been ordered to pay €28,400 ($36,000) and will face further fines if it does not remove the links.

"The court said GeenStijl called attention to naked photos of model Britt Dekker posted on a website called Filefactory by an unknown person shortly before publication of the November 2011 issue of the magazine," the AP reports.

"This decision is terrifying for every journalist and everyone with a website," GeenStijl said in an online statement. The site says it disagrees with the court's reasoning, and argued that Dutch copyright law is in urgent need of reform.

Linking generally does not constitute copyright infringement in the United States. However, the US government has begun prosecuting the operators of "link sites" that contain large numbers of carefully organized links to infringing content.