Right of Communication to the Public in the EU Revisited – What Lesson(s) are in Store for the Future

Abstract

This article revisits the right of communication to the public within the EU copyright framework, situating it in the broader historical trajectory of attempts to achieve technological neutrality in copyright law. It traces how successive technological shifts, from analogue transmission to on-demand digital access, have repeatedly exposed the limits of technology-driven legal formulations, resulting in interpretive fragmentation and uncertainty. Building on doctoral research conducted during the rise of streaming platforms, the paper argues that the commercial emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) marks a new stage in this ongoing cycle. Current disputes concerning AI training and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) mirror earlier debates about online access and communication to the public. The paper concludes that while a genuinely technology-neutral and legally coherent rule remains challenging to achieve, its pursuit is essential to ensure legal predictability and to balance innovation with the protection of rightholders in evolving digital environments.