Netherlands: : Preliminary reference on the use of media players containing “add-ons” which hyperlink to copyrighted content

On 30 September 2015, the District Court of Midden-Nederland sent a preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), containing the following question: does “communication to the public”, within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29/EC, include providing access to copyright-protected material by media players using “add-ons”? Add-ons are software files made by third parties and are freely available on the Internet. They can contain hyperlinks to streaming websites on which access to copyright-protected material has been made available, not necessarily with the consent of the copyright holders