The netherlands are allowed to download from illegal source would not allow. That considers the European Court of justice in a lawsuit over the height of the thuiskopieheffing, which by electronics retailers and manufacturers was filed.
The netherlands argues that the downloading of such material is the same as copying a cd or dvd, but the European Court does not in. The Court ruled that a law that ” no distinction between the copies from lawful sources and copies from spoofed sources cannot be tolerated, because such legislation infringement can promote.
The Court ruled in a case that was brought by several electronics stores and manufacturers, including Sony and Philips. That find that too much thuiskopieheffing pay. The question of whether downloading from illegal source is justified, for this is important: the thuiskopieheffing is referred to the damage caused by illegal downloading to compensate. Because the High Council suspected that downloading from illegal source is not allowed, the matter will be referred to the European Court of justice.
In the Netherlands, is the downloading of movies, music and books from illegal source, for example, from usenet, is at this moment legal. The download of pirated games and software is prohibited; the same applies for the uploading of movies and music. Prosecution is, however, rare. Recently, a man was five thousand e-books had spread his acquittal: according to the Court, there was no public interest in prosecution of the offender.
The cabinet was not yet reached for comment, but promises later on Thursday with a response. The netherlands argued previously that the ban on downloading from illegal source negative consequences for the privacy would have, because downloaders would be able to be prosecuted.
Earlier, the advocate-general of the European Court of justice already that allow downloading from illegal source is not to justify. In the opinion of the attorney general, formal opinion, is often followed. According to the advocate-general for the Netherlands, “the mass distribution of illegal material in the hand’.
The attorney-general left the possibility open that the thuiskopieheffing could be increased, so that the damage by download to compensate. There is the EU-court don’t agree with that: all users should be penalized for the damage caused by the downloading is caused.
In the past, the government has several times a downloadverbod proposed, but due to protests from citizens, it never happened. At the end of 2012 left coalition party PvdA intimated a downloadverbod not want to exclude, but later called the party a downloadverbod understand ‘unmentionable’. The thuiskopieheffing since last year, also for hard drives, smartphones, tablets and pcs.