Website owner/manager is responsible for the content on a website

In a case between ANP (The General Dutch Press Agency) and a taxi company, the Rotterdam District Court ruled that the taxi company had infringed ANP's copyrights by placing a photo on the taxi company's website without permission and without mentioning the source. The taxi company states among other things that the construction of the website has been outsourced to a third party (which placed the photo on the website) and that it trusted that this was allowed. The court considered that the publication of a photo should in principle be attributed to the owner/manager of the website. It is irrelevant in this respect whether the owner/manager of the website placed the photo on the website itself or had it done by someone else. The owner/manager of a website may be expected to ensure that no photos that are protected by copyright are shown on its website.