It is still unclear what the consequences are of a decision of the European Court of justice on internetfiltering for the case of Brain vs. Ziggo and Xs4all. Monitor internet traffic for copyright infringement, should not find the Court.
From the judgment of the European Court of Justice, that on Thursday it became known, shows that the monitoring of internet traffic to auteursrechtschendend material to block, is not allowed. The Court ruled, in a lawsuit the Belgian copyrightwaakhond Sabam against the also Belgian isp Scarlet. Sabam wanted Scarlet internet traffic would monitor to, for example, peer-to-peer traffic infringes copyright law, to block. That practice, according to the Court, however, is too far.
However, it is still unclear whether that also means that the actual blocking of content goes too far: that is not clear from the judgment to lead. That question is of interest for a lawsuit by Brein against Ziggo and Xs4all: Brain wants that isps The Pirate Bay to block requests to certain domain names and ip addresses to repel.
“I can’t immediately deduce that Brein that lawsuit now is going to lose,” says ict lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet. The lawyer asks, among other things, a condition under which block, however, is allowed according to the judges; they only explain under which circumstances that is not allowed.
The case of the Brain differs in several points from that of Sabam. So it goes in the case of Brain to a specific blockage of one website, instead of a general blockade of copyright-protected content. Also need traffic for the requirement of Brain, not content to be inspected; a blockage of the dns – and ip-addresses of The Pirate Bay is sufficient.
According to Milica Antic, a lawyer of Xs4all, however, there are also similarities. So it was one of the reasons for the rejection of the claim of Sabam, the risk that is not only illegal, but also legitimate content through a filter was blocked. That risk is there even with the Brain-case. Although on The Pirate Bay much of the content is found that violates the copyright, there is also legitimate content. That is due to a blockage also more or less inaccessible.
In addition, Antic block websites via dns and ip modifications the same as monitoring. “You look at every request of a user whether it is allowed”, says Antic. Brein gave earlier to the blockade just find a good solution. The foundation was not accessible for comment.