Social media post
as a copyrighted
work.
Social media post
as a copyrighted
work.
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Can an online newspaper simply reproduce someone else’s social media post just because it’s short? The European Court of Justice has ruled that even a short Facebook post can be a protected work.
A guide for parents becomes a newspaper article
On September 8, 2021, a Romanian teacher posted a 22-line message on her Facebook page. The title was “A Short Guide for Parents at the Start of the School Year.” In it, she asked the parents of her students not to give her any gifts.
On September 14, 2021, a journalist for the online newspaper Gândul published an article. In it, he reproduced the teacher’s text in its entirety without obtaining her consent. He added her name and a link to her Facebook page only later. The teacher sought a declaration of copyright infringement and damages. The Bucharest Regional Court dismissed the lawsuit on April 26, 2022, ruling that the text was not protected by copyright. The Bucharest Court of Appeals upheld this ruling on May 3, 2023. The teacher then filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania. The court referred the case to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling.
ECJ Upholds Copyright Protection for Social Media Posts
The European Court of Justice has ruled Judgment of September 3, 2026 – Case No. C-598/24 decided. A post published on a social network can be a copyrighted work This applies even if the author is merely expressing an opinion on social customs. The prerequisite is an original intellectual creation that reflects the author’s personality. The Court also ruled on a second question referred to it. Member States may limit the exception for reporting on current events to short excerpts. A general prohibition on deriving economic benefit from such reporting, however, is not compatible with the Directive. It is now up to the Romanian Court of Cassation to determine whether the teacher’s text is protected in this specific case. The outcome of the original legal dispute therefore remains open.
Why Even a Short Text Can Be Considered a Work of Art
According to the established case law of the Court of Justice, the concept of a work requires two conditions. The subject matter must be an original intellectual creation. It must express the author’s free creative decisions. Furthermore, the subject matter must be identifiable with sufficient precision and objectivity. The length of a text is irrelevant in this regard. Similarly, whether it is published on the Internet or belongs to a particular literary genre is also irrelevant. An exception applies only if these characteristics result from constraints that leave no room for artistic freedom. The Court of Justice had previously applied these standards to Developed everyday items. Now he explicitly applies this to posts on social media. The chamber sums this up in a single sentence.
A text posted on a social network that expresses an opinion regarding social customs deemed inappropriate falls under the term “work” as defined in this provision, provided that the text is the expression of an intellectual creation that reflects the personality of its author.
What Companies with Their Own Social Media Channels Should Keep in Mind
For companies that use social media and content on their own, this decision has two sides. Their own wording may already be protected as a work—for example, pithy product descriptions, responses to customer reviews, or short campaign texts. The prerequisite is a recognizable, distinctive linguistic style. Reproduction by competitors or the media without consent may then already constitute an infringement. At the same time, a company’s own risk increases when it reuses third-party content in its own marketing, such as customer testimonials, influencer posts, or comments. Invoking the exception for reporting on current events generally does not help in such cases. This exception is strictly limited to informational purposes; it is not intended for promotional purposes.
Conclusion
The European Court of Justice sets the threshold for protection under the concept of a work protected by copyright quite low. A critical issue remains that it provides hardly any clear-cut criteria for short, everyday texts.
Exactly where the line is drawn between a work and a mere expression of opinion lacking creative originality remains unclear. Ultimately, the Court once again leaves this distinction to the national courts—in this case, the Romanian Court of Cassation, which has yet to rule on the original case.
For companies, this means, above all, assuming that social media posts are protected when in doubt.
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