BGH: Framing is now permitted

YouTube videos may be embedded as frames, as is already common practice. This has now been decided by the BGH in its Reality II ruling. In Reality I, the BGH took a different view in 2013 and referred the question to the ECJ. However, the ECJ ruled that framing was permissible in 2014. The BGH has now transposed this ECJ ruling into German law. The judgment has not yet been published, so the details are not yet known.

This means that a rights holder who posts a video on YouTube cannot take action against third parties embedding this video on their pages. However, the prerequisite is that the original video was made "accessible to all internet users with the consent of the rights holder". How this requirement can now be reliably verified remains the secret of the BGH.

(BGH, judgement of 09.07.0215, ref. I ZR 46/12 - "Die Realität II")

Date: 5. Aug 2015