A Dutch court has referred key questions about the legality of streamed videos to the EU's highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in a case that could have big implications for Internet users across the EU.

The legality of streaming videos in Europe is currently unclear because of a ruling by the CJEU last year that temporary copies of online content do not require the copyright holder's permission, which some argue also applies to streaming. A post on TorrentFreak explains about the new questions that have been referred to the CJEU: "The questions were raised in a case between Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN and the Filmspeler.nl shop, which sells 'piracy configured' media players. While these devices don’t host any infringing content, they ship with add-ons that make it very easy to watch infringing content."

As the full court request to the CJEU details (Google Translate from original in Dutch), the media players consist of various low-cost hardware systems, including the Raspberry Pi, running the open-source Kodi media player from The XMBC Foundation. The problem comes from some pre-configured add-ons to Kodi, which provide easy and free access to pirate sites offering films, TV series and live sporting events.

The first set of questions posed by the Dutch court to the CJEU are: "whether selling pre-programmed media-players with links to pirate sources is permitted, and whether it matters if the add-ons are freely available, among other things." As TorrentFreak points out, that's an important question, since such boxes are widely sold across Europe. There has already been one raid and arrest in the UK last year concerning these devices, and the ruling could lead to many more such actions.

But the second set could have an even more profound impact. "The court first asks the following question: 'Is it lawful under EU law to temporarily reproduce content through streaming if the content originates from a third-party website where it’s made available without permission?'" This is the issue mentioned above about whether the 2014 CJEU ruling allowing temporary copies also applies to streaming.

"If this is not the case, then the EU Court of Justice is asked to clarify whether it violates the 'three-step-test' of the EU Copyright Directive." The "three-step test" in the European Copyright Directive consists of conditions that have to be met for an exception to copyright's normal rules to be permitted. If it is found that streaming does not pass the test, it would clear the way for widespread legal action against unauthorised streaming content.

There's no indication when we might expect a judgment from the CJEU, but whenever it arrives it is likely to have important ramifications for the online world—not just for the people who are currently enjoying free streamed films, TV series and live sporting events, but also for Internet companies like Google that offer video services such as YouTube.