Embed Copyright Cases Could Multiply as Server Test Faces Siege

Embedding Instagram, Twitter and TikTok posts increasingly is risking copyright liability as judges continue to take shots at what was once an unquestioned shield.

The server test the Ninth Circuit created in 2007 holds that liability for direct copyright infringement on the internet requires the image to have been stored on the defendant’s server.

Embeds under the test are in the clear, because website coding causes content from elsewhere on the internet to appear on a page, with the content beyond the website’s control.

Several New York federal judges have rejected the test in denying motions to dismiss copyright cases. ...