The first set of questions is closely tied to the case and asks 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.

These are important questions as pre-loaded boxes are commonly sold in the EU. Despite the legal uncertainty, this has already resulted in a raid and arrest by UK police earlier this year.

The second set of questions is even more crucial since it relates to streaming in general, which affects millions of users and large multinationals such as Google. Broadly translated, 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?”

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 answers will be of interest to many stakeholders including Google who have a significant interest in streaming related issues because of YouTube, and members of the general public since streaming is so common now.