EU Court Says File Sharers Don't Have To Be Named 52
Stony Stevenson writes "European Union countries can refuse to disclose names of file sharers on the Internet in civil cases, the EU's top court said. The European Court of Justice has ruled on a dispute between Spanish music rights holders association Promusicae and Spain's top telecoms operator Telefonica over Telefonica's Internet clients who shared copyright material on the Web. Telefonica argued that, under a national law based on EU rules, it only had to disclose the name of an Internet subscriber for criminal actions, not civil ones. But the court said: 'Community law does not require the member states, in order to ensure the effective protection of copyright, to lay down an obligation to disclose personal data in the context of civil proceedings.' I wonder if this ruling will have any effect on other cases in other countries."
Optional for each country (Score:5, Informative)
Probably not. The Spanish law doesn't require telcos to disclose the requested information (actually they would get in serious trouble if they provided it to third parties without a judge involved), and the EU said that said law is ok, but other countries could have a different law and that would be ok as well.
Re:Optional for each country (Score:5, Interesting)
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Maybe someone who knows better than me can comment?
Re:Optional for each country (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Optional for each country (Score:4, Insightful)
In Spain, judges play the "God mode" role, there are almost no limits for them, and are the only ones that are able to request *private* held information. As user, Telefonica/Orange/Jazztel/ONO/BT/ya.com/COLT/whatever can not, in no case, provide private information to third parties other than to the case instructing judge. Both "Promusicae" and "SGAE" are RIAA-like private associations. In the case of "SGAE" (stands for "Sociedad General de Autores y Editores", that can be poorly translated as "Authors and Editors General Association" -theorethically a non profit association-), they get money as "canon" -as euphemism, because in Spain a private company can not emit taxes!- for every suitable media (CD/DVD-R*, Hard Disks, flash memory, etc.). In my opinion, Al Capone had, much better gang taste.
As side effect of the undercover taxing, most people buy media to other countries, not only avoid the "canon" (Al-Capone-like tax, as is being issued by a *private* organization), but also VAT and other taxes (!). That stupid measure is generating a huge black market of media, and hurting badly the little computer shops.
Media associations (RIAA an others) are pushing without thinking about that who make the laws are the same that buys the media. The boomerang is already going back, por borregos y avariciosos.
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This ruling will possibly have a huge impact in Sweden. This summer a proposition was introduced by the government to force ISPs to release IP adresses of suspected file sharers. The argument was that EU law required such a law, and that's clearly not the case now.
Under swedish law you need the equivalent af a search warrant in able to obtain a users IP address and that will only be issued for criminal offenses, with a maximum penalty of two years in jail, or more. That is not the case with file sharing a
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Exiting times indeed in Sweden with growing fears about privacy, the influence of swedish and american record companies and the impending trial of The Pirate Bay.
Same fears here, in Spain. Goverments could use the media way as an *excuse* to cut civil rights. We must stop it, it is not about not paying for copyrights, its about individual freedom (!).
H
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Promusicae has screwed up (Score:1)
When I first heard this news it put a big grin on my face. Take that, you asshats.
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This court rulings says that European law does not require telcos to supply information, and it does not prohibit it either. Spain does not have any national law on the subject, so Telefonica are not required to supply this information. If Holland does have such a law, then the likes of Chello would be required under Dutch law to supply the information.
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They now have to prove that you were in fact in front of your computer, and that you were controlling the actions of your computer at the time that your computer was carrying actions that was infringing the copyright.
So that would mean a key logger was monitori
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That's why sometimes, (in the UK at least) where people have not been convicted of crimes, their victims will pursue a civil case against them, because it's much easier to get a civil judgement against someone than a criminal conviction (even though the penalties can just be financial not custodial).
If copyright infringement was only allowed as a criminal offence in the USA, I doubt anyone would be convicted of downloading from
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1: The Man will earn just as much doing something else...advertising exec for SourceForge for example....The Man doesn't really care where he gets his mon
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Keep in mind that there is a civil law system in most EU countries (I think the only exceptions are the UK and the Republic of Ireland), so there
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Yeah, right... (Score:4, Funny)
I wonder if this ruling will have any effect on other cases in other countries.
Not in the U.S., that's for sure. We don't care what them damn heathen furriners do in all them other countries...
Are we learning? (Score:1)
The law will change (Score:3, Insightful)
I predict the industry and anti-piracy lobby groups to focus on newer additions to the EU from Eastern Europe to do just this. These countries use more EU aid and can be painted as piracy hotbeds.
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Be damn sure about it. It's *already* happening. Just alike RIAA or BSA, when you gain money in the hundreds of millions*1 basically with no effort you are aplenty of time for lobbying to support your 'statu quo'.
SGAE's (Spanish RIAA) current policy is spending vast amounts of money (it's easy to expend lots of money when you don't need *any* effort to earn it first) in marketing
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TV companies in most of the world regard "piracy" as a threat to their own sources of revenue, so the fact that they transmit advertising for their own viewpoint disguised as news shouldn't surprise you or anyone else.
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Maybe the world "public" is not the one to be used here (sorry, I'm not English speaking). I meant a government-owned TV channel.
Criminal vs Civil (Score:3, Interesting)
I could search on the internet, but having an answer here would be useful to other readers of
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http://www.rbs2.com/cc.htm [rbs2.com]
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Difference between civil and criminal law [rbs2.com].
Technically, they might be able to argue that placing music on a publicly accessible computer without purchasing a Copyright Music License from the Performing Right Society amounts to a crimi
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Major Labels Backing File Sharing Sites? (Score:1)
The question is not whether they'll do it but when. Everyone knows their position is getting weaker by the day, and the more DRM and restrictions and other technology they add the more the music industry smells like Vista.
2 words for the Media Associations (Score:1, Redundant)
westlaw / lexis (Score:1)
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In Germany there is a workaround already. (Score:2, Informative)
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Its unlikely that such a dubious relationship will continue unabated.
Wont work in the UK (Score:2)
Not that it matters because both Labour and Conservatives are in the pockets of the music industry so they'll probably just ignore this ruling and I can't see any other party getting in.
OT: story tag (Score:1)